Some decision-making authorities, previously closely held by the president or secretary of defense, have been delegated to US SPACECOM, according to sources, but military space leaders want more freedom to act.
Citing new space-based threats, Rome and Washington pledge to work more closely in orbit and are paving the way for US space launches from Italian soil.
“Tactical operating system” for warfighters has evolved to provide more situational awareness of the battlefield.
"This paper ... provides a framework that could help ensure that verification challenges are not used as a convenient excuse for giving up on space arms control as an option," writes author Mick Gleason.
Hiding in the sun, launching mini satellites and radar absorbent materials are just some of the tricks nations are using to hide their military satellites in orbit.
The project is designed "to increase Europe’s independence and superiority in space," the EDF's two-page fact sheet says.
Breaking Defense was given exclusive space tracking information showing the unique path of the Russian system, one experts say is the reason for US government warnings about space-based nuclear weapons.
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
"The United States has been aware of Russia's pursuit of this sort of capability dating back years, but only recently have we been able to make a more precise assessment of their progress," said Mallory Stewart, State Department assistant secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability.
"Although Russia would not be expected to vote for a resolution aimed at its own conduct, its response that it is 'against' putting nuclear weapons in space is just vague enough to not quite be reassuring," said Jessica West of Canada's Project Ploughshares.
"Nuclear weapons in space are a really, really dumb idea," said Jessica West of Canadian non-profit Ploughshares, but experts note that with Russia, nothing can ever be fully ruled out.
One new working group, led by the UK and US, will focus on norms; the other, led by Russia and China, will draft legal treaty.
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
Only a small number of nations, including Venezuela, Iran and China, supported Russia's objections, especially its rejection of responsible behavior as a foundation for norms.
"The prospects for complete success in deterrence of hostile attacks on space assets, particularly reversible, nondestructive attacks, are limited," the RAND study cautions.
"There are hard kill and soft kill capabilities, if you will, that we're funding," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said with regards to offensive space capabilities, but none that would created dangerous space debris.
"I think it's a really important part of where we go to is just looking at how we can have that sort of electronic warfare type of capability to allow us to deter attacks or certainly interfere," the head of Australia's Defense Space Command said.