posted 02-21-2011 08:05 AM               

In executing the National Space Policy, our National Security Space Strategy seeks to maintain and enhance the national security benefits we derive from our activities and capabilities in space while addressing and shaping the strategic environment and strengthening the foundations of enterprise. The U.S. defense and intelligence communities will continue to rely on space systems for military operations, intelligence collection and related activities, access to those capabilities must be assured. We must address the growing challenges of the congested, contested, and competitive space environment while continuing our leadership in the space domain.

Our strategy is derived from the principles and goals found in the National Space Policy and builds on the strategic approach laid out in the National Security Strategy. Specifically, our national security space objectives are to:

- Stregnthen safety, stability, and security in space;

- Maintain and enhance the strategic national security advantages afforded to the United States by space; and

- Energize the space industrial base that supports U.S. national security.

We seek a safe space environment in which all can operate with minimal risk of accidents, breakups, and purposeful interference. We seek a stable space environment in which nations exercise shared responsibility to act as stewards of the space domain and follow norms of behavior. We seek a secure space environment in which responsible nations have access to space and the benefits of space operations without the need to exercise their inherent right of self-defense.

We seek to ensure national security access to space and use of space capabilities in peace, crisis, or conflict. We seek to meet the needs of national leaders and intelligence and military personnel, irrespective of degradation of the space environment or attacks on specific systems or satellites. Enhancing those benefits requires improving the foundational activities of our national security space enterprise - including our systems, our acquisition processes, our industrial base, our technology innovation and our space professionals.

A resilient, flexible, and healthy space industrial base must underpin all of our space activities. We seek to foster a space industrial base comprised of skilled professionals who deliver those innovate technologies and systems that enable our competitive advantage. Our space system developers, operators, and analysts must deliver, field, and sustain national security space capabilities for the 21st century.