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8 November 2024

Space Integration and Adaptability to Maintain Warfighting Advantage

Kari A. Bingen

This line from the 2018 National Defense Strategy remains especially relevant to the domain of space. The convergence of massive data collection, advanced computing, and global distribution networks enables unprecedented insights about activities on the Earth and in the space environment. But in a world where both the United States and China have access to the same cutting-edge technologies—each aiming to create “kill chains” of space sensors networked with weapon systems—the advantage will favor the nation that can more quickly integrate these technologies and adapt its way of fighting while disrupting the adversary’s ability to do the same.

Although technological solutions are within reach, the more significant barriers to integration and adaptation lie in policy, culture, and institutional divisions. U.S. government organizations are not incentivized to integrate, share data, or invest in the infrastructure necessary to enable data interoperability across disparate systems. These less visible, yet vexing, challenges will demand attention from senior leadership in the next administration to keep space capabilities a warfighting advantage for the military forces who rely on them.

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