The theatre of space has become a fiercely contested environment. Rapid technological change and geopolitical competition has upset the stability space enjoyed for decades.
In response, governments are prioritizing how space factors into national security, and how the government and private sector can work together to improve space capabilities and resiliencies.
In the United States, an important part of this process is known as the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserves, or CASR. The objective of CASR is to outline ways for DoD to partner with commercial space companies so their services and resources can be accessed during national emergencies, parallel to existing Air Force and Navy reserve fleets, which allow for non-military planes and ships to be called up in times of need.
The announcement of CASR this February at an event sponsored by Space Systems Command (SSC) was an encouraging acknowledgement that space today requires a strong public/private partnership. Colonel Richard Kniseley. described the effort this way:
“We are talking about how we’re going to expand our commercial partnerships during peacetime to ensure we have access to commercial capabilities during times of crisis or conflict.”
Colonel Kniseley has also indicated that he would like to move quickly and make commercial SATCOM a priority. In April he was quoted by Breaking Defense as saying: “I’m hoping to deliver a framework to leadership this summer with commercial SATCOM as a pathfinder.”
One reason CASR will be different from existing partnership frameworks is the move to low-earth-orbit (LEO) platforms and from simple bandwidth to managed services. Enterprise-class LEO systems like Telesat Lightspeed use next-generation technology such as software-defined networking and optical satellite links to create a resilient global mesh network in space.
Enterprise-class LEO delivers low latency bandwidth with the same user experience as fibre networks. They all deliver more resiliency and security, being harder to disrupt and easier and faster to replenish than GEO systems. Superior LEO functionality is why governments are spending billions with their industrial bases to develop their own space platforms.
As policy and funding vehicles get built around CASR we recommend the following points be considered:
- Traffic Prioritization– Next generation LEO platforms can assign prioritization classes to services on the network, a critical feature for geographies with high congestion on the network. This will increase the overall availability and resilience of managed SATCOM services for the DoD.
- Virtual Reservation – In some LEO networks like Telesat Lightspeed, the government can reserve a global surge capacity pool, that can be immediately activated in any area of responsibility (AOR) in the world.
- Debunk “Free vs. Fee” – There is a tendency for military consumers of SATCOM to view the bandwidth from a government system as “free,” while commercial SATCOM is seen as an operating expense. Nothing is, of course, free – taxpayer money pays for government systems. Assigning some kind of “allocated cost” to government SATCOM – whether actually charged or not – would create a truer measure of equivalency and encourage use of CASR resources. In a challenging budget environment, it’s important that the DoD obtain the best SATCOM capability per dollar spent.
- Collaborative Demand Planning – An effective CASR would include frequent, collaborative, senior level demand planning. Rather than one annual DISA meeting, the DoD should engage in quarterly demand driver insights with security cleared participants from the commercial SATCOM operators.
These points and any other issues can and should be addressed collaboratively sooner rather than later – the earlier in the DoD planning cycle this gets included, the more chance of getting buy-in from all stakeholders and attaining the highest utility from day one. There are analogies for the private sector building and maintaining networks for government use. For example, the private sector maintains and operates the dark fibre network that provides surge capacity for DISA.
Colonel Kniseley had stated publicly he would like to see a budgetary mechanism for CASR by FY 2025. We hope that deadline gets met with a public/private framework that works for both sides. Events in Ukraine have shown us how quickly valuable commercial space assets can get pulled into conflict.
“The conflict in Ukraine has shown that ‘LEO is the right answer,’” said Gen. David Thompson, the vice chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force, at a recent industry event organized by the Space Force Association. “It’s resilient under attack. I don’t think it takes a space expert to have watched what has unfolded in Ukraine to see the value, benefit and resilience of commercial constellations.”
For years the commercial industry has sought a stronger partnership with government partners. Now realities in space have made that partnership a necessity. It’s time to collaborate and have the government leverage commercial investments and innovation and make CASR a powerful reality.
