The commercial space industry has proven its potential value to the military since Russia invaded Ukraine—and not just in the fighting. But the Defense Department won’t be able to subscribe to every commercial imagery or communication service and may instead benefit from “some kind of a call-up structure” for satellites, said a top Space Force general.
USSF Director of Staff Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno suggested the idea Oct. 24 at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ ASCEND Conference in Las Vegas, joining a panel of experts to talk about the government’s use of commercial space assets or services in a conflict.
Not only has the commercial space industry—and its satellite imagery, in particular—informed decisions on the ground in Ukraine, it’s delivered a new degree of transparency that David Gauthier of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency said factors into countries’ “deterrence calculus.”
“It forces a bad actor to realize that with the transparency commercial remote sensing provides, they cannot hide their actions anymore from the world,” Gauthier said. “Satellite imagery can deter entire nations from harming us at a nation level.”
The best way to ensure a strong, competitive commercial market, said Steve “Bucky” Butow, space portfolio director at the DOD’s Defense Innovation Unit, will be to “make sure that we’re using these tools every day in an appropriate way as a complement to our tactical and strategic capabilities.”
Recognizing, however, that the department may not be able to “afford to put every good idea on contract as soon as the good idea comes out,” Armagno said—“or maybe we don’t recognize that it’s a good idea that we’re going to need in two to five years”—she cited as an example the arrangements with commercial airlines to call up the Civil Reserve Air Fleet for military transport.
“It’s actually so essential to how our nation fights. Maybe we need some kind of a structure for space,” Armagno said. “Some kind of a call-up structure would be very interesting to explore.”
Amid concern that commercial satellites could become military targets, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks has said the department is considering how to compensate the companies for potential losses.