Allies Collaborate to Further Space Security, Situational Awareness.

• Author: Mayfield, Mandy

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--The U.S. Space Force recently gathered its international allies in August to discuss how it can further global collaboration as it seeks to maintain order in a critical warfighting domain.

Space leaders from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Japan, Chile and France took part in the discussion, which was hosted by the Space Foundation during its annual Space Symposium confab in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Air Chief Marshal Michael Wigston, chief of the air staff for the Royal Air Force, said the United Kingdom believes the first step toward successful collaboration is to establish common rules in the space domain.

"The U.K. believes strongly that an open and resilient international order is fundamental to all of our security and prosperity, and that means people playing by the rules," he said. "The first bit of collaboration I would point to is actually not military collaboration, it's [collaboration] between our governments and our diplomats working in the United Nations to establish rules and norms of responsible and safe behavior in space."

Countries such as Russia and China are acting "increasingly reckless" in space by fielding systems that are designed to interfere with, harm, or destroy space platforms, he noted. "So, establishing international norms and rules of behavior in space is a fundamental path to cooperation."

The U.S. Space Force's Chief of Space Operations Gen. John "Jay" Raymond concurred with Wigston.

"In every warfighting domain there are rules for safe and professional behavior, and we don't have that today in space," he said. "It's the wild, wild West."

To understand what is occurring in space, there needs to be better situational awareness, he said. Over the course of the last year or so, the Space Force--which will soon celebrate its second birthday--has had conversations with partner nations about the need for norms of behavior in space and to increase awareness in the domain.

The dialogue has picked up pace recently as leaders have become aware of behavior that is "less than safe or professional," Raymond said.

"Over the years, as we train together, as we exercise together, as we play more games together, we exercise these types of things together, ... we [also] tend to have a common understanding of what's safe and professional," he said. "It has been very valuable to have not just one country messaging, but multiple countries messaging, because I think it's important...