Brig. Gen. Shay Warakomski
Senior Cyber Officer, U.S. Space Force
Brig. Gen. Shay Warakomski advises the chief of space operations on the U.S. Space Force’s cyber, spectrum and warfighting communications policy, strategy and operations. This summer, he will take on duties as the assistant deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber and nuclear on the Headquarters U.S. Space Force staff at the Pentagon. As Space Force’s deputy chief operations officer, he will be responsible for formulating policy that advances space operations, sustainment, cyber and nuclear-related efforts for the service.
Warakomski said these recent opportunities have opened doors to positively influence “even more of our nation’s finest.”
“We want to continue to attract incredible talent with a shared common purpose to serve the greater good, and to attract those who have displayed a propensity to put the interests of others ahead of their own,” he said. “I’m incredibly excited by the passion and intellect of the young men and women I meet performing a variety of duties across the Space Force. The team is mindful of the fact we’re making history each and every day, particularly as we build out new, robust capabilities that ultimately secure the American way of warfare and our way of life.”
Why Watch
In 2024 and beyond, Warakomski and his team are working not only to ensure the cyber survivability of operational space systems during development but also actively defend attacks against the critical cyber terrain through ground, link and space.
The Space Force will experience transformational change organizationally, operationally, tactically and functionally to ensure operators are trained and ready to deliver space effects through cyber-enabled space operations, he said. Protecting data traversing through operational mission systems is the top priority, and his team will move forward with integrating passive and active defense sensors across the space mission network enclaves.
Through a DevSecOps framework that aims to identify a shared or common platform, infrastructure and data layer solutions to support open frameworks and architectures across the enterprise ground portfolio, they are deploying both out-of-band and in-band cyber defense tools for ground mission systems, allowing operators to defend against attacks on such mission sets as military satellite communications; missile warning; position, navigation and timing or GPS; ballistic missile command and control; space domain awareness; and nuclear command and control.
“Our ability to project space power is inherently reliant on our ability to operate in cyberspace,” Warakomski said. “The cyber and space domains are both inextricably linked and mutually enabling. This allows us to expand the aperture on a wider array of capabilities that would otherwise be limited in the other domains.”
Cyber operations within network space operations is tied to all other warfighting domains, he said.
“This dependence means achieving cyber superiority is critical to ensuring space superiority,” he said. “Space has become essential to our security and prosperity, and unfettered access to space is vital to the global economy and our national defense.”