The U.S. Space Force announced new plans on April 10 to reorganize and reprioritize the service’s efforts to better integrate commercial space capabilities.
The Commercial Space Strategy complements the Department of Defense’s Commercial Space Integration Strategy, released April 2. The DoD strategy outlines efforts to expand the use of commercial space technologies, while the Space Force strategy goes into greater detail on how that effort will be executed, with a particular focus on acquisition.
“In this era of increasing great power competition, we must harness America’s entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and vibrant competitive markets to succeed in any conflict and maintain our competitive advantage,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, commander of Space Operations, who announced the strategy in a speech at the Space Symposium on April 10.
The Space Force strategy is guided by four overarching missions required by the Department of Defense: balancing government and commercial solutions, interoperability, resiliency to increase the number of providers and diversify the supply chain, and responsible action to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.
The services refined these four broad requirements into four objectives specific to Space Force.
The first is collaborative transparency, which requires all parties to be aware of their partners’ capabilities and limitations.
According to Saltzman, if the private sector doesn’t understand the service challenges, “it’s not contributing, and if we don’t understand what industry can bring to the table, we’re missing an opportunity.”
Operational and technical integration is the second goal, designed to help the service avoid the technical inconsistencies and blind spots that have slowed product development in the past. Through this effort, the service will work to integrate commercial space solutions into a hybrid space architecture. But to get there, the Space Force needs to develop “policies, processes, technical standards and procedures that allow the private sector to integrate data and hardware with the Space Force,” Saltzman said.
Priority mission areas for emerging commercial integration are tactical surveillance, reconnaissance, tracking, space-based environmental monitoring, positioning, navigation, timing, space access, mobility, and logistics. These are in addition to the continued integration of commercial capabilities into mature mission areas such as satellite communications, launch, and space domain awareness.
The third initiative is risk management, under which each service division works to ensure all stakeholders understand risk and receive timely, actionable data to help mitigate it.
The final initiative, “Securing Our Future,” speaks to the services’ commitment to continued investment in emerging commercial space technologies that have the potential to support joint and coalition forces.
Saltzman said the strategy marks a deliberate departure from “the old way of doing business.”
“This strategy recognizes that business as usual won’t get us the results we need,” Saltzman said. “To outperform our competitors, Space Force must take advantage of technological innovation and new capabilities. Otherwise, Space Force will lose, the joint force will lose, and the United States will lose.”
But while the new strategy is important, it doesn’t provide all the answers, Saltzman explained.
“The Commercial Space Strategy is not a panacea and it does not provide the answers. But I believe it sets the framework for the discussions that need to take place, sets the conditions for productive cooperation, and begins the important process needed to accelerate the purposeful pursuit of a hybrid space architecture,” he said.
