The Pentagon wants to release top secret space programs

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has taken steps to declassify secret space programs in an effort to boost the country's military edge in space.

The move would allow private companies, such as SpaceX, to develop never-before-seen technology in large numbers.

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks recently greenlit a policy that “completely rewrites” a decades-old document that kept these missions secret.

It essentially allows the military to lower the classification level of a number of top-secret space programs and technologies for private industry and U.S. allies.

The Department of Defense wants this information released as the world's superpowers continue to invest in the militarization of space.

Just as NASA enlisted the help of private companies to increase the pace of its scientific research in space.

“What the classification memo does in general is it overwrites – it really completely rewrites – an old document that had its roots twenty years ago, and it simply no longer applies to the current environment in which the national security space is involved.” , says the DoD deputy secretary. Space Policy, John Plumb, said last week according to Breaking Defense.

The policy does not mean that these programs and technologies will be kept completely secret and disclosed to the public.

Instead, it will help the US build an “asymmetric advantage and force multiplier that neither China nor Russia could ever match,” Plumb said in a separate DoD report. rack.

Why does the US care about space defense?

Analysis by Millie Turner, Tech & Science Reporter for The Sun

Peace in space, and the ability to defend it, has become an increasingly central pillar for not only the national security interests of the US, but also for its allies and non-allies.

Today, threats from space can range from physical attacks on satellites or spacecraft to electronic spoofing attacks to GPS systems on Earth.

Sure, space warfare isn't quite what it seems in the movies.

But such attacks can have devastating financial consequences and leave major holes in a country's security protocol.

For example, a rogue state could destroy a country's satellite communications by disabling its orbital hardware.

Similar to how companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX have completely revolutionized the way agencies like NASA go into space – revealing Pentagon secrets to private industry and allies will undermine US efforts to defend itself against only support space wars.

Not only that, but it will also strengthen the defenses of its allies, including Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France and Germany.

The programs of interest are so-called Special Access Programs (SAPs), where security protocols severely restrict the sharing of highly sensitive and secret information about them.

While some SAPs are recognized, meaning their existence is known to the public but their details have not been revealed, others have their entire existence kept secret.

Plumb said the new policy will remove GSP status from a handful of the Pentagon's most valuable space programs.

Rather than operating under a blanket DoD policy for all military space programs and technology, each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces can determine its own classification levels.

“Anything we can take, for example, from a SAP level to a Top Secret level, delivers enormous value to the warfighter, enormous value to the department, and frankly I hope that over time [it] will also allow us to share more information with allies and partners that they may not currently be able to share,” Plumb said.