Why Space Force eyes COTS products for its defensive strategy

U.S. Space Force is on the verge of deploying a brand-new ground-based jammer, which has been designed to prevent Chinese and/or Russian satellites from transmitting sensitive information about U.S. forces in the event that a conflict breaks out.

The space service branch tested the system for the first time earlier this year in different locations; the system was controlled from a third.

Space Force said in a statement that the devices were not intended to make U.S. satellites invulnerable to Chinese or Russian jamming, but to blunt the enemy’s ability to communicate effectively via satellite and so launch attacks on U.S. military forces.

It is to be expected, and also to be hoped, that the U.S. is continually testing new systems, considering different scenarios, and investing in the kind of technology that consolidates its position as the world’s foremost military superpower.

In a world that is not only dynamic and unpredictable but, increasingly, unstable and bloody, this is prudent. But there is something else about this development that points to U.S. prudence with regard to foreign policy and defense, and that is its use of commercial, off-the-shelf components in the system in question.

Why is this significant?

Because since the 1990s, the Defense Department has often looked to the private sector for outstanding equipment and cutting-edge technology.

It has been one of the great advantages of the U.S. that it has been willing, as well as able, to exploit the energy, the innovativeness, and the competitiveness of free enterprise to strengthen its ability to defend itself.

Now, with satellites becoming absolutely vital for military infrastructure, DOD is once again showing that kind of wisdom and leaning on those who are driving developments in these areas: commercial companies.

The Defense Innovation Board has stated that the U.S. is no longer the leading cause of progress in certain critical areas of defense, such as electronic warfare, and rather than start the costly and inefficient process of trying to change that, the US is putting its trust in the private sector.

Importantly, many of the off-the-shelf components the U.S. is looking to buy are developed not in the U.S., or by Americans, but have been manufactured elsewhere – namely, in allied countries.

Semiconductors, directed energy, quantum science, optical communications – in these areas, many or most of the world-leading companies are based abroad. Taiwan is widely known to be the largest producer of semiconductors, which enable artificial intelligence.

European countries arguably lead in the field of optical communications: they discovered the solution to what used to be laser’s Achilles’ heel – that it could not pass through atmospheric turbulence without degrading.

So what we are seeing is not just an increasing willingness of the United States to buy off-the-shelf from the private sector, but a growing readiness to buy from partners and allies, too.

This is not a random development. For some time now, U.S. decision-makers have lauded the advantages of ‘interoperability’ with the nation’s friends abroad. Looking both East and West, the U.S. has seen many opportunities for synergy, the free sharing of information and technology, and the strengthening of existing alliances.

Networks, as retired General Joe Votel said of late, have become a fundamental organizing rule that lies behind the accomplishments of many leading businesses, including Uber and Amazon. Their model, with some adjustments, can be applied in the defense sector, and so change the prevailing attitude from ‘industrial-base thinking’ to ‘network thinking.’

The "State of the Space Industrial Base" report explicitly recommended an approach that was ‘allied by design’, exhorting the construction and development of highly-integrated defense systems and systems-of-systems specifically for space from the start, and urging the integration of the innovative defense products and services of America’s allies into the US space enterprise.

Free and developed countries, most of which are grouped together under the imperfect adjective ‘Western’, do not want to go to war with each other, and wish to preserve peace.

In a shifting geopolitical landscape, with wars raging in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, those countries can take advantage of their historic ties, as well as the spirit of freedom and innovation that is closely associated with them, and ensure that they are resilient to threats and that, ultimately, their way of life remains broadly as it is.

That is why Space Force’s use of off-the-shelf products in a new, small modular system matters. It represents a move from talk to action: a move towards interoperability, stronger global relationships and a concerted effort to develop the kind of cutting-edge space infrastructure that is now a military necessity.

Jeff Huggins is the president of Cailabs US Inc.