Screenshot of a virtual session during the US-Brazil Space Engagement Talks hosted by Southern Command Aug. 4, 6, 11, and 13.

WASHINGTON: Space Force and Space Command (SPACECOM) are moving quickly to expand cooperation with emerging space actors such as Brazil, Chile and Korea, says Gen. DT Thompson, Space Force vice chief.

“We’re expanding and accelerating partnerships … with partners and allies, not just our traditional partners that we’ve had with many years and the partners that you would expect,” he told the Air Force Association’s Schriever Forum on Friday. “We’re expanding to ensure that includes the French and the Germans and the Japanese, that it includes the Koreans, and frankly [we’re] looking into other regions, other nations who are looking to develop space capabilities.”

Until recently, US space cooperation had largely been limited to the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing allies — Australia, Canada New Zealand and the United Kingdom — because of the highly classified nature of most milspace programs. Over the past year, Space Force and SPACECOM have opened the doors wider to France, Germany, Japan and Norway.

As I reported earlier this month, Germany and France recently joined the 5 Eyes partners in the CSpO, the Combined Space Operations Initiative.

Japan and Norway are both hosting US military payloads on their satellites. Japan will launch US space situational awareness (SSA) sensors on its Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) going into Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) to help keep an eye on Chinese space activities. Norway in 2022 will launch US protected communications packages on its polar-region satellites to help improve US communications over the every-more critical Arctic.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of Space Operations Command, told the Alaska Council on World Affairs that Space Force partnerships with Norway, Denmark and Canada are key to the US Air Force’s Arctic Strategy. In a Nov. 19 talk, he noted that while those countries do have differences with the US in their approach to Russia’s aggressive military attitude in the Far North, “we just find that the interests that we have are much more in alignment than any differences that we have.”

Thomson said that Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) also is eyeing potential agreements with Luxembourg and the Netherlands — hinting that those two countries might also be interested in hosting payloads or other types of joint development/acquisition activities.

SMC’s Chief Partnership Officer Deanna Ryals is leading efforts “to engage with partners in new and different ways,” he said, noting that her office was key in setting up the US-Norway effort on protected communications. “They’re working on innovative relationships with, believe it or not, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and some other places you wouldn’t think of as traditional spacefaring nations, to bring that capability on board,” he said.

In recent months, Thompson added, US space leaders have begun reaching out to emerging space players in Latin America: Brazil and Chile.

SOUTHCOM shieldIndeed, Space Force and Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) held their first formal discussions with Brazil in August, under the newly created U.S.-Brazil Space Engagement Talks. In sessions held over four days, the two sides discussed “future collaboration opportunities in space situational awareness; research, development, test, and evaluation; launch; satellite command and control; among other areas,” according to a SOUTHCOM press release.

Participants came from the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), the US Embassy in Brazil, SOUTHCOM, Space Force, SPACECOM, the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Space and Missiles Systems Center (SMC), Air Forces Southern, and the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL).

A similar meeting was held with Chilean officials on Oct. 28-29. While Santiago is somewhat behind rival Brazil in development of its space program, Chile is a member along with the US of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna — where the US is attempting to build a coalition to support its efforts to shape norms of behavior in outer space to counter the influence of Russia and China on international space governance.

And on Nov. 6, Space Force, SPACECOM, Space Force and Southern Command hosted a first America’s Space Conference and invited six Latin American countries “to focus on coordination, cooperation and collaboration for space research and development opportunities,” according to a SPACECOM press release.

That conference included experts from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru; Canadian officials attended as observers. The conference was directed by Thomas Colley, head scientist at AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate. Issues discussed include SSA, cooperation and planning, and collaboration with commercial/civil space entities.

“Space is a fundamental domain for the security and development of our nations and a relevant variable for the multilateral collaboration among the Air Forces of the American Continent,” Chilean Air Force Maj. Gen. Francisco Torres, director of operations, said in the SPACECOM press release.

Partnerships in Latin America are extremely important, Navy Rear Adm. Mike Bernacchi, SPACECOM’s director of strategy, plans and policy, said. In recognizing the extreme importance of space as a new, contested domain “where there are no sidelines,” he added, the US relies on allies and partners in daily operations, planning, and strategy development.