From using EO sats for intelligence collection to adversaries relying on jamming and spoofing to degrade assets in orbit, the extension of conflict into space is happening today—and commercial entities must play a crucial role in adapting to the increasing importance of national security in space.
That was the key message from a panel I moderated last weekend with officials from the military, investment, and commercial communities at Maxar’s Orbital Edge event on the sidelines of SXSW in Austin.
Here are my top five takeaways from the panel on how industry, the DoD and the investment community can ensure troops are best prepared for the conflicts of today—and tomorrow.
Opening the aperture: Capt. Cody Bronkar, a Guardian who manages investments and partnerships at SpaceWERX, said the military’s venture office is looking to boost its work with defense tech startups overseas. While he said specifics are still a work in progress, he highlighted interesting commercial space tech from nations including Australia, Canada, and India.
“We are opening up our aperture a little bit more to international, and an international focus. We’re trying to narrow down what that looks like officially, but consider that a wink-wink, hint-hint,” he said.
Signals intelligence: Bronkar also acknowledged that the Space Force doesn’t do a great job signaling to industry and investors both why it is spending in specific areas, and how those budget lines could grow in the future. Chris Morales, a partner at Point72 Ventures, also called on the Space Force to give investors more insight into what tech it wants to acquire—and that the best way to do that is awarding SBIR and STTR contracts to startups.
“If you want private capital flowing into specific sectors, that’s a very good way to encourage it,” Morales said. “Just tell startups that if they build what you want, you’ll buy it and then buy it. It’s that simple.”
On demand: The Defense Department is investing in responsive launch to be able to quickly replace satellites in LEO if assets are taken offline during a conflict. But Morales said being able to rapidly reconstitute assets in GEO—where most communications and early missile warning sats are located—is a critical area in need of more investment to boost resiliency.
False flag: One vulnerability in the national security space chain that keeps one industry exec up at night? The ease with which information from space can be spoofed, and the dangerous consequences that could unfold on Earth as a result.
“For information about what’s going on on the ground to be misleading, that presents a huge risk,” said Jackie Barbieri, founder and CEO of defense tech firm Whitespace. “The worst case scenario would be if some sort of kinetic decision or action is taken based on misinformation.”
What’s next: While lunar operations have so far been reserved for civil and commercial missions, Morales predicted that the idea of the Moon as a high ground for national security will become more prevalent over the next five years. Bronkar also said an uptick in crewed space travel—of both NASA and commercial astronauts—is likely to change the calculation for security and acceptable risk in orbit.
