Spacebound – Militaries Finally Taking Space Seriously

The days of outer space being benignly tolerated by military organizations are over. These days, for better or worse, the world’s militaries are taking outer space very seriously and allocating resources to this domain accordingly. That was one of the key takeaways from the ‘Fireside Chat’ between RCAF Brigadier-General (BGen) G. Michael Adamson, Commander of 3 Canadian Space Division), and moderator BGen. Kevin Whale (Ret’d), MDA’s Senior Director of Defence Strategy and former RCAF Director General for Space. They spoke during day two of Space Canada’s Spacebound 2023 conference. It was held in Ottawa October 18-19, 2023 at the Canadian Museum of Nature. “What I've found really interesting over the last few years has been the increasing awareness of space,” said BGen Adamson. “There’s been an ‘Ah Ha!’moment, if you will, across defence. I joke (about it) with my colleagues in the UK, Australia and other countries as they have stood up Space Commands similar to us over the last couple of years. We talk about the fact, that within our respective militaries, that space has become mainstream and there's been this growing awareness across the entire community — Army, Air Force, Navy, and Special Operations — that space is absolutely critical to what they do.” The downside? As have been proven in Ukraine and other theatres of military conflict, Canada’s adversaries are well aware of space’s importance and are doing their best to deny access to it. “All of those (space-based) capabilities that we rely on to execute operations are at risk,” BGen Adamson said. “Those military folks out there that get up in the morning and turn on 15 pieces of equipment that immediately connect to GPS or SATCOM, or rely on some kind of feed or anywhere from space, are having these ‘Ah Ha’ moments that if I don't have that, can I go back to first principles? If I'm a pilot, can I do my navigation using a map as opposed to relying on GPS? Does an army soldier know how to read a map to get from one field to the other or is he going to be stuck in a ditch somewhere?” A further takeaway from this Fireside Chat is the Canadian Armed Forces’ desire to work more closely with its suppliers through a ‘Commercial Integration Cell’. “What is it and why do you need it?” asked BGen (Ret’d) Whale. “This is something that we saw in the U.S. context, an organization that is embedded within their Space Operation Center at Vandenberg with 12-13 different companies that are involved,” BGen Adamson replied. “It is a single individual that's cleared up to the appropriate security levels within their Space Operations Center who can call out and shop to whatever industry partner they may need to be talking, about something that might be going on.” Not only does this approach speed up interactions between defence and industry, but it also provides extra intelligence to the U.S. military. The reason? When the cleared contractors see something suspicious in their commercial satellite imagery, they report it. The result is a “really, really important two-way dialogue between companies,” BGen Adamson concluded. “It's working really well for the U.S., and it stands to reason that it would be something that would absolutely make sense to have in the Canadian context.” Read our previous stories from the annual Spacebound conference.