Military space stakeholders spoke at length about modernizing military space at SATELLITE 2020, acknowledging it requires a new level of innovation, collaboration, and cooperation among vendors, government agencies, and industry.
Joshua Huminski, Director of the National Security Space Program at the Center for The Study of the Presidency and Congress, said: “We need to look at the question of how do we integrate our capabilities. With the absence of a clear threat environment, we’ve treated space like a benign enterprise. There hasn’t been really the need to innovate.”
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Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, SVP of Government Policy and Strategy at Inmarsat Government, stressed commercial industry’s role: “Since the commercial industry is such a predominant player in space, it’s important to appreciate what that means in terms of a new type of partnership between commercial and government.”
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Stephen Kitay highlighted several ways the U.S. is fostering military space: the Space Force, U.S. Space Command, Space Development Agency, $300 million in FY 2020 for new technologies, and international cooperation with Japan. “I agree we have more to do, but this is a start. We need to use these new organizations as a catalyst for new thinking.”
One major challenge is raising awareness among Congress and citizens about space communications. Huminski said: “If we don’t understand what the threats are out there, we won’t have a very productive conversation.” VS
