In an “unprecedented” move, the Space Force has welcomed its first foreign officer to join the service’s top staff. Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman appointed Air Marshal Paul Godfrey as Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships, a brand new role in the service.
Godfrey is expected to “integrate allies and partners with the U.S. Space Force’s capability development strategy,” a spokesperson from the service told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
“I don’t believe a foreign officer has ever been assigned to a service staff at this level before now,” Saltzman wrote in a letter distributed to Guardians on July 12. “This is a significant step forward in promoting closer cooperation with an important ally, and it exemplifies the kind of partnership we need to internalize as a service.”
International exchanges are not uncommon for military officers, but Godfrey is perhaps the highest ranked at air marshal, equivalent to lieutenant general. At a slightly lower level, last year Pacific Air Forces named Royal Australian Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Carl Newman as deputy commander under then-PACAF boss Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach. Newman, alongside his fellow deputy commander Lt. Gen. Laura L. Lenderman, assists in managing nearly 46,000 personnel across the Indo-Pacific region under PACAF’s command.
A month into his tenure, Godfrey is charged with advising Saltzman on all matters related to achieving U.S. space superiority and resilience through international partnerships.
Godfrey brings a wealth of experience, both in space and in collaborating with the U.S. military. During his nearly three decades in the Royal Air Force, he became the first ever head of U.K. Space Command, and also served in the Middle East at the U.S. Air Force’s Combined Air and Space Operations Center and participated as an exchange pilot with the 55th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.
A Space Force spokesperson clarified that Godfrey’s new position as a Guardian aims at fostering partnerships globally, engaging allies across the regions of Indo-Pacific, Africa, and Europe.
“Partnerships allow us to build trust, share information and truly integrate operations to maximize resilience and defend against aggressive behavior,” Godfrey said in a release. “It is a real honor to serve in this new position alongside my U.S. counterparts to deepen allied relationships and promote safety and security in space.”
“The Space Force will succeed or fail based on the strength of our partnerships,” Saltzman wrote. “Despite the Space Force’s status as the preeminent military space power, the simple fact is that we can’t succeed without allies and partners. Operations in space are too complex, too risky, and too variable for us to go it alone.”
Saltzman also emphasized that “our people, policies, and processes must be integrated by design” with those of our allies and partners.
“This is why we are pushing so hard on security classification reform, ensuring we can share the right information with the right people when it matters most,” Saltzman added in his note.
In January, the Pentagon approved a new space classification policy that “completely rewrites” the Space Force’s approach to handling secret programs, aimed at enhancing collaboration with commercial industry and global allies.
“The more things that can be shared with allies and partners, I think, the deeper that relationship could be, and that’s not going to happen overnight, but that is the path that hopefully, we have set ourselves on.” former assistant secretary of defense for space policy John Plumb said in January.