U.S. attempts to foster closer military integration among allies are extending into space.

       The U.S. military wants allies to train and plan together for space operations, in the same way that they already do in ground, air and naval combat, Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, said in an interview.

       The move comes amid concerns about China and Russia’s ability to disrupt the West’s satellites and new technology the two countries have developed, including satellites that can grab others. Russia, for instance, has conducted operations to disrupt Ukraine’s space-enabled communications.

       “The conflict in Ukraine has made it clear: access to, and use of, space is fundamental to modern war," said Saltzman, who has recently held a series of meetings with European counterparts to push the case for greater cooperation.

       Saltzman said the aim was to have shared interoperability among allies, and to jointly train and develop tactics, techniques and procedures that exist for ground, air and sea combat forces.

       “When you get to integration [among allies], you are at a whole different place, rather than merely coordinating," Saltzman said.

       Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year has led to increased coordination between North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, and other traditional U.S. allies, in providing Kyiv with weaponry and training. The U.S. has also been trying to build a coalition with allies including Japan and Australia to potentially confront China as it becomes more assertive in the Pacific.

       There is already some military coordination in space, including shared satellite launches and NATO space centers in Germany and France. But Saltzman said he thinks that cooperation so far has been nascent and needs to go further.

       “Quantity is a quality in itself," he said, using an expression often employed in the military. For example, the satellites of a large coalition would be harder to target than those of one nation, he added.

       Saltzman, who was talking at a recent visit to the Royal International Air Tattoo, an air show outside of London, said he is impressed by space expertise in the U.K., Australia, Canada, France and other allies. While these countries’ budgets aren’t as big as the U.S.’s, their “strategic thinking" on space has been valuable, he said.

       Russia and China have developed significant capabilities in space.

       Saltzman said that Russia has been sending satellites “irresponsibly close" to those of other nations to shadow them. Moscow has “nesting doll" satellites, which can release an object that can be used to attack other objects in space, while China has tested robotic arms that can be used to grab other satellites. Both countries have demonstrated missiles that can destroy orbiting satellites.

       At the start of the Ukraine war, Russia jammed satellite communications and the Global Positioning System, a U.S. satellite-based navigation system.

       Among the lessons that the U.S. has learned from this, Saltzman said, is that ground assets that enable satellite communication need to be protected as well as those in space. Another takeaway is the need to have myriad commercial operators to augment the capability of state providers, he said.

       “When those satellites were affected, the most rapid way for Ukraine to regain communication was through commercial augmentation," he said.

       When cellphone towers providing telephone and internet services were knocked out early in the war, Ukraine turned to Elon Musk’s Starlink service, which provides internet connectivity using a swarm of satellites.

       Musk’s SpaceX has also cornered much of the rocket-launch market in the U.S., leading to some concerns among industry players that it operates a monopoly.

       Saltzman rejects these concerns.

       “There are a lot of launch providers that are rapidly competing, we are in a rapidly different space to 10 years ago," he said, referring to an instance when U.S. launches were stopped from using a Russian rocket, giving them fewer alternatives to get into space.

       Some parts of the satellite universe, though, will have to stay in state hands.

       “There are inherently military functions that need to be performed…you can’t outsource those," he said.

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