WASHINGTON — A new report from a Pentagon advisory panel calls for increased adoption of commercial space technologies to bolster U.S. military capabilities.
The study, conducted by the Defense Science Board (DSB), a committee of civilian experts that advises senior Defense Department leadership, recommends a comprehensive approach to integrating commercial space capabilities into national security architectures. The report was commissioned in November 2022 by Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu and publicly released last month.
The DSB panel that wrote the study, chaired by industry executive Mandy Vaughn and retired U.S. Air Force general Ellen Pawlikowski, emphasized the rapidly evolving nature of the space sector and the need for the Department of Defense to leverage these advancements.
“Commercial capabilities are key to a resilient hybrid architecture,” the report states. The DSB study also looked at the potential risks associated with adversary exploitation of these systems.
Recommendations from the DSB include:
- Implementing an end-to-end framework for integrating commercial capabilities into national security space architectures
- Incorporating evaluations of commercial space services into institutional processes
- Incentivizing trust and building resilience among commercial providers
- Developing capabilities to monitor and respond to adversary use of commercial space assets
- Considering market maturity when making investment, regulation, or procurement decisions
This report follows two recent strategy documents released by the DoD and U.S. Space Force in April, both advocating for greater military adoption of commercial space technologie for communications, space surveillance, navigation and other essential services.
