COLORADO SPRINGS — Despite ongoing trade disputes and disagreements between Washington and European capitals over Ukraine strategy, U.S. Space Force officials said international space cooperation remains largely unaffected by these broader tensions.
“It’s been business as usual in terms of the collaboration with the partners and allies this week,” said Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, former commander of the U.K. Space Command who currently serves at the Pentagon on the U.S. Space Force staff as assistant chief of space operations for future concepts and partnerships.
“The space domain is different to the other domains,” he told reporters April 9 at the Space Symposium, suggesting that rifts that affect other aspects of transatlantic cooperation don’t impact space issues as much.
This resilience of space partnerships mirrors previous instances where space collaboration has transcended geopolitical conflicts. A notable example is NASA and Russia’s continued joint operations at the International Space Station after the U.S. and Russia severed many other relationships following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Saltzman to meet with military chiefs
Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, echoed this sentiment while speaking to reporters alongside Godfrey. He emphasized the importance of maintaining and strengthening international partnerships.
Saltzman this week is hosting an annual meeting with military air and space leaders from around the world. He used a keynote address at the Space Symposium to emphasize the Space Force’s push to deepen international partnerships, a move he said is essential to staying ahead of threats and maintaining technological interoperability.
“With regard to military-to-military relationships,” said Saltzman, “especially with my counterparts that I deal with on routine basis, just as as the air marshal said, ‘it’s business as usual.’”
“We’re still discussing the same challenges,” he said, including declassification concerns and initiatives for joint training and educational courses.
When addressing European cooperation specifically, Saltzman emphasized that the U.S. approach remains NATO-centric. “That’s really what we support,” he said.
The Space Force chief also noted the strategic advantages of these partnerships, pointing out that European allies are making significant investments in space technologies and have developed vibrant commercial space industries that the U.S. can leverage.
“You don’t want to buy two of the same things when you only have to buy one of them,” he said. “You don’t want to buy things that don’t work together, because that creates a seam,” he added. “Let’s work together and figure out what we are going to buy so that maybe coalition partners could take advantage of that and buy something else.”
