Pentagon and Space Force Release Commercial Space Strategies
Earlier this month, the US Department of Defense (DoD) released its first-ever Commercial Space Integration Strategy. The core idea of this short six-page document is to better allow the DoD to take advantage of the growing capabilities of the commercial space sector. This builds on a previous commitment outlined in the 2022 National Defense Strategy to “increase collaboration with the private sector in priority areas, especially with the commercial space industry, leveraging its technological advancements and entrepreneurial spirit to enable new capabilities”.
To achieve this, the new document outlines four basic principles. The first principle is to maintain balance between government and industry solutions across mission areas which avoids “overreliance on any single provider or solution”. The second principle deals with interoperability; it seeks to ensure the DoD and industry have compatible standards, that the DoD’s standards do not hamper the development of commercial solutions, and states the Pentagon will consider adopting commercial standards where possible. The third principle is resilience and aims to ensure that US security architecture is free of disruption. It deals with issues like supply chain diversification and cybersecurity. Finally, with its fourth principle, the department promises to maintain international norms, standards and ethics in space.
These principles are paired with four priorities for commercial space integration:
- Ensure access to commercial space solutions across the spectrum of conflict
- Achieve integration of commercial space solutions prior to crisis
- Establish security conditions for integration of commercial space solutions
- Support the development of new commercial space solutions for use by the Joint Force
Eight days after the department of defense, the US Space Force released its own Commercial Space Strategy which, while still broad, provided more details on how exactly these DoD principles and priorities will be implemented. For example, while the Pentagon strategy lists a variety of mission in space, it does not speak on them in any detail. By contrast, the Space Force strategy outlines specific minimum capabilities the service will attempt to acquire via commercial partnerships. For example, to address Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT) needs, the Space Force informs that it:
“seeks broad surveillance services, planning products, data, transmission and fusion, and analytic capabilities from the commercial sector that can aid in the development and optimization of TacSRT functions in support of services and Combatant Commander objectives. As it pursues those services, the USSF will continue to partner with the Intelligence Community to leverage existing capabilities where appropriate to ensure there is not duplicative effort.”
Both documents are available online. The link to the DoD strategy is here and the link to the Space Force strategy is here.