Vice Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force, General Michael Guetlein stressed the main challenge the Space Force has with addressing space threats is the current DoD contracting and award processes that inhibit efficient commercial partnerships. Guetlein emphasize that space is evolving into a central domain of warfare as China develops sophisticated networks in space that are resilient to attacks and as Russia develops space-based nuclear weapons. Without addressing rapid DoD acquisition pathways and finding ways to support closer collaboration with private companies, the Space Force is challenged to stay ahead of the threat.

The Space News articles cites the following challenges affecting public and private partnerships:

1. The government contracting process is slow and not transparent enough. Assumptions within industry is that the DoD has an unlimited budget and Requests For Information (RFIs) signal immediate opportunities when actual contracts are based on constrained & competing budget allocations which drive longer contract awards.
2. Satellite manufacturers are hampered by industry consolidation that results in key component shortages. Government contracting patterns do not provide consistent demand to enable stable product lines. Additionally, while Space Force contract awards have increased, the demand is insufficient and inconsistent prevent additional support for companies to scale.
3. Space companies are challenged with ensuring that their products can meet military needs- feasible solutions that are resilient by design.

The Space Force is seeking to expand transparency through its recently published commercial space strategy and its allied space strategy, which will be published next spring.  The goal is to build “hybrid architectures” that integrated both allied and commercial capabilities to resolve current and future assessed capability gaps.

Cybersecurity implications are twofold: 1) Space Force requirements as a potential driver for increased cybersecurity design focus within commercial offerings and 2) increased market entry barriers for private start-ups to meet developed cybersecurity requirements. Design resiliency as a primary Space Force focus could encompass addressing kinetic threats (nukes in space) as well as cyber ones. Here, leveraging a space-based cybersecurity standard will enable better transparency within Space Force contracting. To address this, the USSF Commercial Space Strategy states:

“To ensure cyber risks are appropriately accounted for, each provider will be evaluated against the National Security Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Defense Information Systems Agency standards. The USSF seeks capabilities from the commercial sector that can provide levels of mission assurance across all segments (ground, link, and space). Moreover, the USSF seeks capabilities that further enable its digital force, including making data visible, accessible, understandable, linked, trustworthy, interoperable, and secure. This requires bold changes and technology development consistent with the DoD Zero Trust Framework and DoD Data, Analytics, and AI Adoption Strategy.”  (USSF, 2024, p. 10)

The USSF Commercial Space Strategy goes on to address a portion of the cybersecurity requirement impact to commercial offerings by stating:

“The integration of commercial space solutions into the USSF architecture is not without risk. Companies that choose to employ solutions in support of military operations must accept the inherent risk of doing so and take actions to protect their capabilities to ensure availability when needed, including in wartime. The USSF will aid commercial companies to identify these risks and provide actionable, timely data to aid in risk mitigation.” (USSF, 2024, p. 12)

Interestingly, this statement implies that the cost of implementing cyber-secure systems bears some cost ownership by the private sector. The strategy references that the USSF will “establish a process to share threat information with commercial companies that permits the timely dissemination of actionable threat data, thus reducing risk to the commercial systems.” (p.12) It does not direct commitment to funding private companies’ up front establishment of cyber-secure development and operations environments. This suggests that only proposals that demonstrate cybersecure designs will receive contract consideration. Given the supply challenges mentioned previously, it’s unlikely that the Space Force will see significant expansion in the private industry proposals beyond the current players.

Article Link: https://spacenews.com/challenges-facing-space-force-and-commercial-industry-gen-guetleins-candid-take/

USSF Commercial Space Strategy Link: https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/2/Documents/Space%20Policy/USSF_Commercial_Space_Strategy.pdf