Project SLADE

Project SLADE (Satellite-Laser Attribution, Defense, and Escalation) is a 3-year study focused on ambiguous interference, threat perception, and escalation through the transitional intelligence framework for optimal mission assurance effectiveness. The study will analyze the phenomenon of satellite and laser ambiguous interference, inclusive of cyber takeovers, satellite on satellite confrontation, kinetic anti-satellite attacks, solar weather and radiation attacks, electromagnetics crises, re-entry crises, and attribution and escalation scenarios. Project SLADE is a study that will further support two future missions after its conclusion:

Mission JIGSAW: Specifically phase III and years 4-6 of the Specialized First Responder Crisis Teams Project and phase II in the Cyber Regional Resilience and Crisis Response Project for the pilot development and implementation of tactical Cyber Defense Teams. This team will consist of local law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMS personnel, 911 dispatchers, and cybersecurity professionals trained to provide first responder services during the event of a mass cyber-attack or during high-risk regional crises as a result of cyber-attacks and disasters arising from cyber events.

Project SLADE will help inform this work by analyzing possible security crises on national and international levels and translating the findings into educational resources, field-based simulations, and emergency preparedness planning tools for regional cyber defense teams.

MAP Mission: The MAP Mission is an inter-connected collection of Missing Person & Vessel Recovery operational projects focused on mission effectiveness within the search and recovery ecosystem. After Project SLADE, this ongoing Mission will center on four primary domains:

  • Arctic, Wilderness, and Desert Search & Rescue: This work will include analyzing satellite reliability, interference and degraded navigation, drone reconnaissance, timeline reconstruction, communications, and team coordination in remote environments, terrain, navigation, and limited infrastructure

  • Military Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) Personnel Recovery: This work will include analyzing threat perception, operational escalation, recovery coordination, communications resilience, human performance under environmental stress and crisis conditions, and mission sustainment & continuity within combat environments

  • Humanitarian Disaster Response: This work will include the analysis of satellite service disruption, information reliability, multiagency coordination and integrated institutional assessments within degraded infrastructure, mass emergencies, and recovery operations

  • Deep-Sea Operations: This work will include Shipwreck search and localization (satellite-derived information, oceanographic modeling, multibeam sonar, side-scan sonar, and search and recovery using autonomous underwater vehicles), deep-sea recovery operations (examining autonomous underwater vehicles, recovery systems, specialized vessels, and coordination required to conduct operations at extreme depths), and maritime mission assurance (evaluating navigation reliability, surface-to-shore communications, underwater acoustic communications, decision-making, and mission continuity using the transitional intelligence model during prolonged searches)