US Strategic Command announced Wednesday it is forming a new Multinational Space Collaboration at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The effort will provide “a framework for combined operations in space among the Five Eye allies”—the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada—according to a press release. The goal of the effort is to “explore methods for increased sharing, cooperation, and collaboration to preserve the safety of spaceflight, and enhance mutual security,” according to the release. As a first step in assembling an international cohort, STRATCOM expects “to have a German [liaison officer] in place at Vandenberg” sometime this summer, said Lt. Gen. David Buck at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday. As the commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space, which will be hosting MSC, Buck will be central to its success. “As space is a global commons, the MSC provides a vehicle to enhance sharing and collaboration with other like-minded nations,” Buck said. He added that a central focus of MSC will be improving space situational awareness.
The Space Force has a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to change the way it develops and delivers space capabilities, said Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman at AFA’s Air, Space, and Cyber Conference, and Congress is poised to help make that possible.
