Inked by Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman and NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth during the annual GEOINT Symposium in St. Louis, Missouri, the MOA outlines the boundaries between NGA’s operations and the Space Force’s nascent Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking (TacSRT) program — putting an end to a two-year turf war over which organization should purchase commercial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products and deliver them to combatant commanders.

“What [the agreement] really reflects is the quality of collaboration and every echelon that was necessary to work through these procedures,” Saltzman said in a statement. “I’m excited about this because of what it represents, and that’s really industrial strength collaboration.”

Whitworth first shared news of a drafted MOA with the Space Force in April during an interview with DefenseScoop, noting that moving forward NGA will work closely with the service to ensure the organizations weren’t “paying twice” for commercial ISR.

In a statement, Whitworth called the finalized agreement “a new standard for collaboration.”

While the full text of the MOA was not made public, the document outlines a “governance framework” between the intel agency and the Space Force by detailing the roles and responsibilities each organization has in providing commercial ISR to military leaders, an NGA spokesperson said in a statement to DefenseScoop.

Furthermore, a Space Force spokesperson told DefenseScoop that the MOA requires the service to collaborate with NGA support teams to “ensure data purchases and derived products … conform to consistent, mutually agreed upon National System for Geospatial Intelligence standards when applicable.”

The accord also states the Space Force will “coordinate processes and procedures for dissemination and releasability of products,” and submit a report to NGA each quarter that describes the service’s efforts to minimize overlapping efforts, the spokesperson added.

Disputes between the Space Force and NGA first arose when the service kicked off TacSRT in 2023. The program established a marketplace where combatant commanders can directly buy and rapidly receive “operational planning products” — including unclassified imagery and data analytics — from commercial space providers. 

Although Space Force officials have touted the success of TacSRT and begun efforts to scale it, the program caused some tension between the service and the intelligence community.

Under current Pentagon-IC policies, NGA holds responsibility for acquiring commercial ISR products and determining who across the government receives them. At the same time, the National Reconnaissance Office is tasked with buying commercial remote sensing imaging and sharing it across the department and intelligence community.

Space Force leaders have claimed that TacSRT is not meant to step on the toes of NGA and NRO, but instead serve as a complement to the intelligence community’s work.

During a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Saltzman said the program “fills a niche where you have unclassified capabilities that can get quickly into planners’ hands.”

Now that the Space Force has finalized an agreement with NGA, the service is expected to also reach a similar arrangement with the NRO.

When asked by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., about progress on the Space Force’s work with the intelligence agencies on Tuesday, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink emphasized that foundations for collaboration have been laid — but “the devil’s in the details.”

“We’re just starting to feel good now and starting to do experimentation with [TacSRT] now, using tools to allow that to happen,” Meink said. “There’s obviously still a lot of work to go, but I think there’s been great progress made, and the fact that we already have systems that we can start doing testing work and start doing exercise will be critically important.”

The post Space Force, NGA reach agreement on purchasing power for commercial ISR appeared first on DefenseScoop.

“Despite the dramatic rise in threats and increasing importance of space over the last few budget cycles, the Space Force has experienced shrinking resources. This disconnect between value and investment creates risk for our nation,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “Further exacerbating the situation, the Space Force has been asked to accept new responsibilities and missions forcing tough choices between delayed readiness, reduced capacity and vulnerabilities.”

The Space Force has recently named “space control” as its newest and most important core function. As outlined in the Space Warfighting Framework released in April, the mission requires capabilities and guardians that conduct orbital, electromagnetic and cyber warfare operations to achieve “space superiority” by protecting on-orbit assets and military personnel from an adversary’s space-enabled attack.

Saltzman told senators that unlike its other core functions that require modernization of systems, space control calls for capabilities and infrastructure to be created entirely from scratch — a task he said would be the Space Force’s top priority in fiscal 2026.

However, the service would be unable to achieve that with current funding levels and personnel without experiencing negative impacts to its other mission areas, he said.

In his written testimony, Saltzman explained that 78 percent of the Space Force’s budget is dedicated to delivering capability to the entire joint force — leaving less than a quarter of the service’s funds available for developing space control.

“At present, we do not have the full set of capabilities necessary to secure the space domain at the scale we need to assure joint force success,” Saltzman said. “These decisions have disproportionately impacted the [Space Force’s] ability to meet its obligations to the nation.”

Compounding the issue are a number of novel mission areas given to the Space Force in the last three years. Along with space control, the service is working on transferring ground- and air-moving target indicator systems to space, developing modeling and simulation tools, increasing its launch cadence and taking a lead role in President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield.

“There’s a lot of new equipment, there’s new training, there’s new people. We can’t just take what we have and presume that we can gain space superiority with that equipment. That new equipment requires new resources, and so that’s where the disconnect comes,” Saltzman said. “We are not adequately funded for new missions that I’ve been given in space superiority.”

As the Defense Department’s newest and smallest service, the Space Force’s funding accounts for only about three percent of the entire Pentagon’s budget allocations. Officials have previously said that fiscal constraints caused by repeated continuing resolutions and FY25 funding caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act have stifled the service’s growth.

At the same time, the Trump administration’s ongoing push to cut excess spending and reduce workforce across the federal government could further impact the Space Force’s efforts to develop and buy new capabilities, Saltzman said.

He told lawmakers that the service has lost almost 14 percent of its civilian employees to early retirement and deferred-resignation programs — more than what officials previously estimated. Civilians make up over one-third of the Space Force’s 17,000 personnel, and they mainly hold roles inside the acquisition community.

“I’m worried about replacing that level of expertise in the near term, as we try to resolve it and make sure we have a good workforce doing that acquisition work,” Saltzman said.

The post Saltzman: Space Force underfunded for space control, other new missions appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Titled “Space Warfighting – A Framework for Planners,” the document provides the service’s most detailed plan to date for conducting warfare “in, from, and to space” as the domain becomes increasingly contested. The framework’s primary goal is to establish a common lexicon for guardians and joint planners focused on counterspace operations. It lists offensive and defensive options the Space Force can take to achieve what it calls “space superiority.”

“It is the formative purpose of the Space Force to achieve space superiority — to ensure freedom of movement in space for our forces while denying the same to our adversaries,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman wrote in the framework’s foreword. “We must be prepared to employ capabilities for offensive and defensive purposes to deter and, if necessary, defeat aggressors that threaten our vital national interests.”

The document’s release comes as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been emphasizing the importance of promoting a “warfighting ethos” across the Defense Department. That rhetoric has trickled down to Space Force leaders, who are now openly discussing the military’s ability to weaponize the space domain through counterspace operations after years of keeping those plans and capabilities behind closed doors.

Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements, told reporters Wednesday that the new framework represents a shift for the United States’ newest military service towards a more codified strategy and doctrine.

“This space warfighting document is in that vein of the natural maturing of the Space Force, and this one is very specific to space superiority,” Bratton said. “This document is very specific to our core function of space control and how we think about warfighting in space.”

According to officials, counterspace operations will be executed across three mission areas: orbital, electromagnetic and cyberspace warfare. The document also details different offensive and defensive counterspace actions guardians can conduct at the direction of combatant commanders.

For example, offensive actions include “orbital strike,” which can destroy, disrupt or degrade an adversary’s space platforms on orbit either through kinetic or non-kinetic means. The framework also lists “space link interdiction” — options to affect an enemy’s space communications links — and “terrestrial strike” — which focuses on an opponent’s infrastructure on Earth — as offensive options.

The Space Force divides its defensive actions into two groups: active and passive. “Active space defense” includes options to escort friendly satellites on orbit; conduct reactive counterattacks against enemy space systems that pose a threat; and suppress adversary counterspace targeting abilities. The framework lists seven mechanisms for “passive space defense” that aim to proactively protect the Space Force’s capabilities against foes.

Bratton noted the framework isn’t a comprehensive list of what systems the Space Force already has in its arsenal, but will hopefully help frame the service’s discussions on what technologies and systems it will need moving forward. 

“I think there are concepts in here that maybe we don’t have capabilities for today, that maybe it’s time to start thinking about those things,” he said. “The document does prod guardians in those areas. Like, let’s find out if there’s a military advantage in space-to-space weapons. Or, let’s find out if there’s a military advantage in other areas.”

Overall, the document attempts to underscore the contributions the Space Force will make to the joint force in future conflicts, as protecting the other services from space-enabled attacks is now considered one of the organization’s core missions.

“The success of the joint force really does depend on the success in the space domain. We have to be able to take away that capability from an adversary, maintain that capability for ourselves — or the whole joint force will suffer,” he said. “It’s a big responsibility. The guardians of the Space Force are going to carry it.”

The post Space Force publishes new framework for how it will conduct space warfare appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Initiated as a pilot effort in 2023, TacSRT established a marketplace where CoComs can directly purchase commercial imagery and related data analytics. In order to expand the program, the Space Force received an additional $40 million in funding as part of the continuing resolution passed by Congress in March. 

“The addition of this money represents a congressional vote of confidence in our efforts to tap into the commercial space market for the collective good,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said Wednesday during his keynote address at the annual Space Symposium.

Saltzman and other service leaders have touted the success of TacSRT in recent months, especially the initiative’s ability to rapidly deliver critical information to warfighters. Through the program’s Global Data Marketplace, combatant commands can put in requests for “operational planning products” that include unclassified data from imagery and sensors collected by commercial space vendors. 

Col. Rob Davis, program executive officer for space sensing at Space Systems Command, told reporters Wednesday that TacSRT data is primarily being used to support humanitarian operations and monitoring of illegal fishing around the world. 

And while the pilot version of TacSRT initially supported U.S. Africa Command, leaders at other combatant commands are leveraging the program’s marketplace as well. For example, U.S. Central Command also purchased commercial data analytics during construction of the Joint-Logistics-Over-the-Shore pier in Gaza, and TacSRT provided U.S. Southern Command with real-time tracking of wildfires in South America, according to the Space Force.

As it looks to scale TacSRT, the service is still figuring out the best ways to operationalize the program, Davis said.

In the TacSRT Tools Applications and Processing Lab, “we are doing the development of additional techniques, partnering with industry, partnering with [Space Force] component field commands … to develop new tools that we can then operationalize, as well,” Davis said during a media roundtable. “We continue, in that more developmental space, to do ad hoc support through that experimental space to answer questions that combatant commands have.”

With plans to expand TacSRT, the Space Force is also working with the intelligence community — including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office — to delineate roles and responsibilities for purchasing commercial imagery. 

Under current Pentagon-IC policies, NGA is responsible for buying analytical models and ISR products from commercial providers, as well as determining who across the government receives the packaged data. At the same time, the NRO is tasked with acquiring imagery from commercial remote sensing satellites and disseminating it across the Pentagon and intelligence community. 

However, the Space Force’s TacSRT pilot caused some tension between the service and intelligence agencies — with some concerned that the Space Force’s acquisition and distribution of space-based commercial imagery is a duplication of NGA’s and NRO’s work. 

But after years of back and forth, NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth told DefenseScoop in an interview that the agency and the Space Force have drafted a “memorandum of agreement” over the relationship between NGA and TacSRT. The service is also finalizing a similar agreement with the NRO, according to a report from Breaking Defense.

Whitworth explained that in his role as functional manager for geospatial intelligence, he is charged with oversight of both the Defense Department’s and intelligence community’s acquisition of space-based ISR from commercial satellites. To that end, his responsibility moving forward will be reporting on the use of commercial imagery in warfighting — including via TacSRT — to lawmakers while also involving the Space Force, he said.

“This fits beautifully into being that integrator, and Congress feels the same way from a stewardship perspective,” Whitworth said. “So getting to that issue [of] we’re not paying twice, keeping that denominator involving TacSRT officially in our world and vice-versa is healthy.”

The post Space Force continues expansion of commercial surveillance, data analytics program appeared first on DefenseScoop.