ORLANDO, Fla.—Nearly a year after the Department of Defense signed off on a new policy meant to reduce classified restrictions on space programs, not a single weapon system has yet made it through the process, the head of U.S. Space Command said Dec. 11.
That’s not to say they’re not trying, Gen. Stephen N. Whiting said at the Spacepower Conference.
But the wait highlights the bureaucratic hurdles SPACECOM and the Space Force face in trying to integrate allies and commercial partners into their plans.
The DOD policy change, signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks in January 2024, did not declassify anything on its one. Instead, it established a process to enable officials to “pull down” classification levels for systems previously designated Special Access Programs, a restriction level that exceeds top secret clearances, and to re-designate them at “more rational classification levels,” Whiting said.
Space Force leaders have pushed back on over-classification for years, and criticism dates back to before the Space Force was formed. Limits on access makes coordination harder and frustrates operators who may not be informed of certain capabilities until just before or even after they might need them. Even if the weapons programs stay top secret, moving them down from SAP provides a “massive value to the warfighter,” noted then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb in February.
Yet even that has proven “difficult,” Whiting said.
“There’s just a lot of work to do when you’re taking something from a very high classification level and pulling it down,” Whiting told reporters. “Things like, you’ve got to move all the information off of different networks onto other networks. And that is not trivial work. There is work ongoing to take our blue systems and run it through that process. But no blue system has gone through that process completely.”
Making progress is critical, Whiting added, “because that will make us better as part of this broader warfighting team, if we can truly have the right conversations about the capabilities that we’re bringing to the table.”
In the meantime, the issue continues to frustrate operators in the field, said Chief Master Sgt. Tina R. Timmerman and Chief Master Sgt. Jeffery J. Grela, senior enlisted leaders for the Space Force components to U.S. Space Command and U.S. Central Command.
“We still have significant over-classification problems,” Timmerman said in a panel discussion.
“The one obstacle we’ve been seeing—no surprise— … is over-classification, or, in all fairness, perceived over-classification of what it is we do, which is an inhibitor to really partner to the level that we’d like to partner,” added Grela.
For allies trying to decide what space systems they should develop with limited budgets while not duplicating things unnecessarily, over-classification is a major frustration, said Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, a UK officer who’s serving a tour as the Space Force’s Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships.
“You want to develop relevant capabilities and capabilities that will be interoperable,” said Godfrey, who brings a personal perspective on the issue having been the first head of U.K. Space Command. “But a lot of the time you don’t know what is available. You just don’t know what you don’t know.”
Space Force officials have begun saying they want acquisition strategy to be “allied by design,” so investments are closely coordinated with allied countries. The Department of the Air Force’s International Affairs team has increased information sharing, said Steven A. Ruehl, director of policy and programs in that office. Declassifying more can only help. But Godfrey cautioned that secrecy is always going to be part of the space picture.
“We don’t need to share everything,” he said. “Everyone needs their own information that they’re going to protect. But currently we are not sharing enough.”