John Plumb, assistant secretary for space policy at the Department of Defense, said a new memorandum “completely rewrites” a classification policy for secret space programs, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.
He noted that the memo signed by Deputy Defense Secretary and Wash100 awardee Kathleen Hicks in late 2023 seeks to reduce the use of Special Access Program status, or SAP, as part of efforts to share more information on secret space initiatives with U.S. allies and industry partners.
“What the classification memo does, generally, is it overwrites — it really completely rewrites — a legacy document that had its roots 20 years ago, and it’s just no longer applicable to the current environment that involves national security space,” Plumb said.
“So, anything we can bring from a SAP level to a Top Secret level for example, brings massive value to the warfighter, massive value to the department, and frankly, my hope is over time [it] will also allow us to share more information with allies and partners that they might not currently be able to share,” he added.
Plumb noted that there must be technical aspects for designating a space program as special access.
According to the report, the policy marks a key step in developing a new DOD strategy for international space cooperation meant to help the U.S., along with its partners and allies, conduct collective military space operations.
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