Pentagon developing new defense space strategy

The Defense Department is crafting a new space strategy aimed at implementing the 2018 National Defense Strategy.

Steve Kitay, deputy assistant secretary for space policy, said this week the new strategy is "evolving" and builds on the president’s 2018 National Strategy for Space. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Uriah Orland told Inside Defense the strategy will be reviewed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, but did not provide a time line for when it would be completed.

Kitay said during a Mitchell Institute event this week the strategy is built on three main tenets: maintaining superiority in space, providing support from space and ensuring stability throughout space.

As the department continues to make the shift in viewing space as a warfighting domain, Kitay said, it must continue to position itself to defend U.S. and allied partner assets -- an effort that he said is "getting tremendous priority in the department."

The strategy also details the Pentagon's need to continue to provide support to the joint force and "maintain a persistent presence and provide for safe transit in, to and through space."