View Featured Space Threat Assessment 2024 By Clayton Swope, Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young, Madeleine Chang, Stephanie Songer, Jeremy Tammelleo PublishedApril 17, 2024 of Space Threat Assessment by the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). For the last six years, CSIS has used open-source information to produce an annual assessment of threats to U.S. national security space systems posed by foreign government capabilities. Each report in this series catalogs yearly trends, uses, and advancements of counterspace weapons and enablers to […]
View Featured Space Threat Assessment 2023 By Kari A. Bingen, Kaitlyn Johnson, Makena Young, John W. "Jay" Raymond PublishedApril 14, 2023 This resource for policymakers and the public leverages open-source information to assess key developments in foreign counterspace weapons. Drawing on six years of collected data and analyses, this series describes trends in the development, testing, and use of counterspace weapons and enables readers to develop a deeper understanding of threats to U.S. national security interests in space. The past year was dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where space capabilities, including commercial satellites, played a highly visible and compelling role in Ukraine’s resistance to the invasion. Thus, this year’s featured analysis provides an in-depth look at Russia’s battlefield employment of counterspace weapons.
View Featured Battle Networks: The Three Part Series By Todd Harrison PublishedMarch 4, 2022 Militaries use battle networks to detect what is happening on the battlefield, process that data into actionable information, decide on a course of action, communicate decisions among forces, act on those decisions, and assess the effectiveness of the actions taken. Battle networks are sometimes referred to as the “sensor-to-shooter kill chain” (or just the “kill […]
View Featured Defense Against the Dark Arts in Space By Todd Harrison, Kaitlyn Johnson, Makena Young PublishedFebruary 26, 2021 This analysis from the CSIS Aerospace Security Project addresses different methods and technologies that can be used by the United States government, and others, to protect against or deter adversarial attacks via counterspace weapons.
View The Evolution of French Space Security By Makena Young PublishedMarch 14, 2024 In the last decade, there has been an international resurgence of focus on space for commercial, civil, and military activities. Space is now a critical domain for many nations around the globe, and both individual countries and multinational coalitions have recently released space policies and strategies. European nations have taken a greater interest in space […]
View The Pitfalls of Labeling Whole Space Missions as Inherently Governmental By Clayton Swope PublishedMarch 12, 2024 The Department of Defense (DOD) will soon release two strategies aimed at harnessing commercial space capabilities for national security needs. Defense officials have said that the strategy to be released by the U.S. Space Force will categorize certain space missions as “inherently governmental,” with mission criticality influencing which missions fall into this group. While well meaning, this approach does […]
View No Place to Hide: A Look into China’s Geosynchronous Surveillance Capabilities By Clayton Swope PublishedJanuary 19, 2024 China launched a remote-sensing satellite called Yaogan-41 into geostationary orbit (GEO) on December 15, 2023. Analysts expect the satellite to settle into a position that would allow continuous surveillance of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as Taiwan and Mainland China. Paired with data from other Chinese surveillance satellites, Yaogan-41 could provide China an unprecedented ability […]
View Mission Authorization: Decoding the Space Policy Dilemma By Clayton Swope PublishedJanuary 11, 2024 On November 15, 2023, the White House’s National Space Council released a legislative proposal that would create a licensing process for private sector novel space activities, called mission authorization, consistent with U.S. obligations under the Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967. Meanwhile, Congress and a government-chartered space advisory group have offered their own proposals. While all parties acknowledge […]
View Another Leap Forward: India’s Historic Moon Landing and the Space Competition Underway By Kari A. Bingen PublishedAugust 30, 2023 Critical Questions is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s). […]
View Does the FY24 Budget Request Reflect Defense Priorities? By Kari A. Bingen PublishedMay 30, 2023 This commentary was originally published by the National Security Space Association on May 30, 2023, as part of a compilation of views on the U.S. Space Force budget from national security space experts. While this is the fourth budget request for the U.S. Space Force, it is the first since the release of the Biden administration’s National […]
