Securing the Highest Ground

The Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (CSPC) is unveiling “Securing the Highest Ground”, a new report by its National Security Space Program, which includes recommendations to advance and accelerate the integration of commercial capabilities into the national security space architecture. “The environment is ripe for change in the national security space arena. While there is a lot of attention on the Space Force, there are imperative steps that Congress, the White House, and the Department of Defense should take today to ensure our continued strength in space,” said program co-chair and David M. Abshire Chair, Rep. Mike Rogers.

No country relies on space to the extent America does for its national security and economic strength, and no country enjoys as robust and dynamic a commercial space industry as does the United States. At the same time, Russia and China are increasingly aggressive adversaries in space, growing more capable by the day. Action by US policy makers is necessary. Maintaining the status quo is unsustainable. The Department of Defense must fundamentally break the mold of how it organizes, trains, and equips for space by embracing space-as-a-service, not as a product. It must re-envision the architecture, its approach to mission assurance, and its relationship with the commercial sector.

“CSPC’s goal is to bring together business leaders, policy experts, and government representatives to identify actionable outcomes, and I believe we achieved that with the National Security Space Program” said CSPC CEO & President, Rep. Glenn Nye. He added, “Our bipartisan country-first focus is a model for tackling some of our country’s greatest challenges”.

In partnership with George Mason University’s National Security Institute, the NSSP brought together over 125 experts from commercial space companies, the government, military, academia, and the think tank community in a series of five off-the-record roundtables and a table top exercise to discuss the changing threat environment and the emerging opportunities afforded by “New Space”.