NATO looks to publish first commercial space strategy in 2025

As it looks to ensure access to critical capabilities during conflicts, NATO plans to release its own commercial space strategy next year that aims to expand the alliance’s ability to tap into advancements in the private sector.

While the strategy’s development is still in nascent stages, it’s intended to provide guidance as to how member nations can take advantage of a range of commercial space technologies to increase resiliency in the domain, Maj. Gen. Devin Pepper, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and policy at NATO, said Thursday.

“There’s a lot of commercial capability out there that we can leverage to increase our own resiliency at NATO. We want to be able to capture that,” he said during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute. “Right now we have contractors with several commercial companies today. We want to be able to expand that and make sure that we can rely upon that in a conflict if we need it.”

Having previously served as deputy commanding general for operations at U.S. Space Operations Command (SpOC), Pepper was recently promoted to serve within NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT) where he will work to advance the alliance’s multi-domain operations, including in space. Since it officially recognized space as an operational domain in 2019, NATO has worked broadly to bolster its presence and capabilities in that realm.

“We need to be able to have that data and that information available in a fight, whether it comes from the military or not,” Pepper said. “But if that gets shut down, we have got to be able to ensure that we can still prosecute a fight leveraging commercial capability.”

On Oct. 2, NATO hosted representatives from the space industry at its headquarters in Brussels for a Commercial Space Forum, where attendees discussed emerging threats — from cyber attacks on ground stations to GPS jamming and spoofing — as well as investment opportunities and information-sharing on threats, according to officials.

The meeting followed the alliance’s decision this summer during the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, to develop its own commercial space strategy.

Pepper added that NATO’s commercial space strategy will be closely aligned with those published by the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. Space Force earlier this year. The Pentagon-wide strategy outlines the policy guidelines for the entire department, while the Space Force document focuses on the service’s use cases for commercial technology integration and desired end states.

A NATO press release stated that its strategy will include guidance on protection for industry partners. However, there will likely be alliance-specific bureaucratic processes and mission opportunities included in the organization’s commercial strategy, as well as a different pool of commercial vendors able to participate, Pepper noted. 

“Not every nation in NATO is a space-aring nation [or] has space capability,” he said. “That’s why we have asked all of our nations to please tell us what you have, and then what industries may be available in your particular country that has a capability that we can certainly leverage.”