"As the 2025 National Security Strategy notes, commercial and military space capabilities are one of the United States' greatest geopolitical advantages.1 The nation's civil, commercial, and military sectors have profited immensely from unrivaled incorporation of space-based capabilities. However, competitors have identified weaknesses and shaped their strategic approaches to exploit them. Worse still, although the U.S. civil, commercial, and military space communities are interrelated, the distinctions between them present malign actors with seams through which to hazard American security. To compete successfully in space and retain its advantages in other domains the United States must establish a new, more integrated approach to securing its total space infrastructure—civil, commercial, and military alike—against attack in space or cyberspace.
This essay makes the case for more coherent efforts to actively secure the nation's space infrastructure, including the commercial space sector, against hostile action. First, it will offer a discussion of the invaluable contributions of the U.S. commercial space sector. Next, it will summarize the threats competing nations, specifically China, may choose to bring to bear against it. In Part II, it will outline the current U.S. approach to space infrastructure security and identify risks built into that approach. Finally, it will propose and defend one potential approach for maximizing the aggregate security of America's space sectors while minimizing cost: establishing a renewed system of letters of marque and reprisal to empower the civil sector to defend itself.
The U.S. commercial space sector is an irreplaceable strategic asset to both the economy and national security broadly. The Space Force's Commercial Space Strategy recognizes that America's strategic space environment is "driven, in part, by national security and civil needs."2 However, "hybrid architectures" integrating commercial space capabilities offer improved capabilities and defray the costs of government investments. 3 American policy defines the commercial space sector as goods, services, or activities provided by private sector enterprises that bear "a reasonable proportion of the investment risk," that are available for purchase, and governed by free market incentives.4 This definition covers a wide spectrum of systems and effects. American commercial space firms offer world-leading capabilities across numerous sectors of space operations, including satellite manufacturing, satellite services, launch capacity, and ground equipment.5 The satellite services sector comprises the majority of the economic value of the space industry,6 providing products direct-to-home television, satellite communications, satellite radio, consumer broadband, and Earth observation.7 These services, along with satellite-based positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services, enable the network-connected experience of modern, American life…"
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Armand
