The U.S. Space Force is tackling longstanding over-classification practices to improve collaboration and interoperability with allied nations in an increasingly complex space environment.
“The problem with [over-classification] is now I can’t go to my partner and go, ‘I’ve got a spear you can use,’ because it’s now classified,” said Brig. Gen. Jacob Middleton, commander of U.S. Space Forces Europe and Africa on July 22 during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
“It hampers our ability to pull together a campaign plan that leverages our partners and allies,” he said.
Middleton further explained that in the early years of services’ defense space operations, information was often designated at higher classification levels than necessary to protect national security. While intended to safeguard sensitive capabilities, officials have increasingly acknowledged that this approach limits cooperation with international partners – particularly as threats in space evolve and demand a more unified response.
According to Middleton, the Space Force is working through that declassification effort because “the warfighter operates in a way that we have to share information.”
The effort to declassify more information is also intended to improve training and joint exercises with allied space forces – especially in building an ‘allied by design” space architecture which Space Force officials have long called for.
This model, Middleton explained, envisions countries contributing unique capabilities aligned with their own needs and resources and allowing for more efficient and agile multinational space operations.
These changes are already delivering results, Middleton said.
The push to increase information sharing has “opened up the ability for us to work with our partners and allies a little differently than before, and so it has reduced the amount of time it would take to go through the process to pull them in when we do agree on a certain approach and capabilities that we need,” he said.
“I think it’s working very well, and we’re definitely moving in the right direction at a speed that I don’t know if we could have done before.”