ORLANDO, Fla. – U.S. Space Command is updating its approach to integrating commercial systems into operations as the broader national security space community takes a more progressive stance toward collaboration with the private sector.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, who leads the command, said the new strategy, signed in November, focuses on SPACECOM’s core missions and how commercial space capabilities fit within those areas. The update follows the release of two high-level commercial integration strategies earlier this year – the first from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the second from the Space Force.
The strategies are part of a larger Department of Defense effort to better collaborate with private sector aerospace companies, encouraging acquisition personnel to look for off-the-shelf systems where possible and develop concepts for how on which commercial technology can be deployed in future conflicts.
For example, last year the Space Force created a Commercial Space Office and charged it with identifying more opportunities to acquire commercial systems and services. The agency is also in the process of creating a Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve, or CASR, which would establish a stable partnership with private sector companies for space capabilities that could then be expanded as needed during a humanitarian crisis or war.
Whiting said Wednesday at the Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida, that key efforts in the updated SPACECOM strategy revolve around advocating and identifying new capabilities, operationalizing that technology and sharing information with commercial partners about threats and other activities that take place in the domain.
That work largely aligns with efforts like CASR and the work of the Commercial Space Office. Whiting said SPACECOM is working closely with the Space Force to determine what operational conditions could create the need for additional CASR capabilities in various mission areas. He told reporters after his speech that commercial support through that program would likely come in waves, depending on how a crisis unfolds.
“Depending on how a situation evolves, there may be additional phases of CASR where we can get more and more capacity,” he said.
SPACECOM also regularly collaborates with the private sector through its Commercial Integration Cell. The organization was founded in 2015 as a pilot involving private sector systems to help military space operators identify and resolve problems in orbit.
The command recently expanded the cell’s membership from 10 to 15 companies and will soon add two more. These are companies that work extensively with the Department of Defense and the intelligence community and, as part of the cell, have access to highly classified information about space threats.
Whiting told reporters that the five additional companies – BlackSky, Kratos, ICEYE, LeoLabs and Telesat – already provide the National Reconnaissance and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
“We can now give them information at the highest level about the threats that are in the domain, and they give us insight into how their constellations are affected or operate in the domain,” he said.
As another example of SPACECOM’s commercial integration efforts, Whiting noted that the command has included private sector systems on its list of critical space assets for the first time. Having non-DOD systems on this list means SPACECOM has a duty to protect and defend commercial space capabilities when directed, he said.
