Originally published by Space Intel Report on November 4, 2024. Read the original article here.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The U.S. Space Force expects to sign its first contracts with commercial space operators in fiscal-year 2025 under a new policy regime that brings commercial assets directly into combat alongside the U.S. military in ways that would have been unthinkable not long ago, Space Force Vice Chief of Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said.

The Space Force also expects to publish this spring its Allied Space Strategy, a document that he suggested will demonstrate the US military’s belief that the benefits of proliferated assets extend beyond the U.S. force structure to include allied space capability.

For commercial industry, the Space Force recently issued a request for information on how some of the more prickly details of its Commercially Augmented Space Reserve (CASR) might be resolved: Is there a special insurance policy indemnification associated with it? How does the compensation for reserve capacity compare to current commercial rates?

In an Oct. 23 address here to Silicon Valley Space Week, organized by Satnews Events, Guetlein gave an outline of how far CASR might extend for those companies that sign up for it. He acknowledged that it’s complicated.

“If I am going to become dependent on you in times of crisis, I need to know that you are going to be there, which means I need to communicate how risks are going to manifest themselves and how to defend yourself against those risks,” Guetlein said.

And on what the Space Force can expect from CASR partners:

“This might include leveraging commercial capabilities that you already have in orbit. I may repurpose capability you have already delivered for another problem.

“I may augment our current capability by layering in commercial capability.

“I may have reach back to your production lines — satellites sensors and launch vehicles — to take advantage of them during times of crisis or conflict. I may ask you to do denial of service.

“These are the areas we are looking at as potential options to leverage in the future. We are kicking off our first mission areas analysis, focusing on satcom and Indopacom. We hope to take that into our War Games for 2025.”

Cooperation extends to spaceports, he said. the US National Reconnaissance Office’s use of Rocket Lab’s New Zealand launch base demonstrated that, and the Space Force sees this as a way to mitigate risks.

“In the continental U.S, both spaceports are congested,” he said referring to the Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg space force stations. We know we have to expand our capacity. Having all your eggs in two baskets is not a good way to build in resiliency.”

Guetlein said the Space Force has already developed an outline of how CASR can be “a win-win relationship.”

“We have built a draft readiness plan to guarantee that the capability will be there and have been building draft contract structures to make sure we are incentivizing the right behavior. This is a very complex legal, economic and political problem that we are navigating our way through, but we are doing it in full transparency and partnership with industry.

The same motivation driving CASR is also driving what he said will be a much deeper engagement with U.S. allies in space: “We are seeing a demand for our capabilities that far exceeds our capacity and far exceeds our resources. This drives partnerships.”

“As we have seen in Ukraine, our international partners are there by our side and are unwavering. This has allowed us to change the way we think about the threat and about how we think about having to own and operate all our own kit.”

Classification, the perennial obstacle to U.S.-allied cooperation, remains a problem. But Guetlein said in the past year or two there has been movement to declassify space programs to facilitate dialogue.

“The last area that we have been working hard at is getting the term NOFORN out of our classification markings so that we can have more robust covnversations. We are committed to getting after it.”

He noted that UK Air Marshal Paul Godfrey is now serving in the U.S. Space Force as Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships “to help us do better integration with our allies. He is a U.S. Space Force member working for the chief of Space Force operations, wearing Space Force rank on a UK uniform.

“It’s our way of showing we are going to bust down those barriers we have had in the past to become more integrated and more transparent. It is the exact same commitment with our commercial partners. Satcom is leading the discussion on hybrid infrastructures to integrate, seamlessly, allied, commercial and DoD assets.”

Most of Guetlein’s remarks were devoted to subjects whose policy objectives have been laid out by Defense Department hierarchy and set down in policy documents.

But he was probably speaking more on a personal note when he was asked whether there might bone day be enforceable international law on space conduct.

It’s just a matter of time before we go down that patch,” Guetlein said. “Right now there are a lot of global challenges distracting us. But going forward, we have to do that.

“We have agreements with 30-something countries right now to establish norms of behavior in space to make sure we are all demonstrating safe and professional behavior. And we would like to see that codified in the future, whether in treaties or in some other form. I think that’s the way of the future.”

Originally published by Space Intel Report on November 4, 2024. Read the original article here.