WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee is proposing legislation that would require DoD to share threat intelligence with commercial satellite operators.
This is one of several proposals in the subcommittee’s draft bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Ranking Member Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) released their proposal June 12 and scheduled a markup of the bill June 13.
The draft bill:
- Requires DoD to submit a plan to share threat information with commercial space operators.
- Requires a review of classification guidance before granting milestone approval of space major defense acquisition programs.
- Requires DoD to establish a process to identify and evaluate commercial space situational awareness capabilities and to develop and implement a plan to integrate that data into Space Force operational systems.
- Establishes a Space National Guard limited to those states and territories with Air National Guard units currently performing space missions.
- Establishes a single military personnel management system for the United States Space Force.
Sharing data with commercial operators
“Commercial space providers that contract with the Department of Defense are vulnerable to physical and cyber threats; and the United States Space Command has established the commercial integration cell to aid in the integration and protection of United States satellites and to build awareness of threats,” the draft bill says.
The U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command are directed to develop a plan to expand existing threat-sharing arrangements with commercial space operators tha are under contract with the Department of Defense.
They also have to establish a process to regularly identify and evaluate commercial space situational awareness capabilities, including the extent to which commercial space situational…
Read the full article here