Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks signed a memo in late 2023 that encourages fewer classifications on documents related to the department’s space programs.
The memo itself is classified, though it essentially replaces a decades-old policy that is obsolete, Pentagon Assistant Secretary for Space Policy John Plumb said on Wednesday.
“What the classification memo does, generally, is it overwrites — it really completely rewrites — a legacy document that had its roots 20 years ago, and it’s just no longer applicable to the current environment that involves national security space,” he said, adding that it “removes legacy classification barriers that have inhibited our ability to collaborate across the U.S. government and also with allies on issues related to space.”
Moving forward, the DOD policy will not simply give documents classifications, the special access programs designation, without a reason.
“The general point that I have made clear is policy … is not the only reason to hide something in a SAP program,” Plumb said. “There have to be technical aspects to it. And I do think this will take time for the building to absorb.”
Hicks emphasized the significance of the space domain last week during the change-of-command ceremony at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, in which she noted that Russia and China are evolving their military strategies and capabilities to include space.
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“They’re both deploying capabilities that can target GPS and other vital space-based systems, and we’ve seen both countries conduct operations against us and our allies and partners to degrade our space advantages,” Hicks said. “More than ever before, space is integral to military operations. And our competitors know it. They realize how much the American way of life and the American ways of war depend on space power. And they want to undermine our advantage here.”
Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the same ceremony that he views space “as our most essential warfighting domain — integral to our national security, our coalition interoperability and our global stability.”
