The Pentagon is looking to shake things up in space! They just announced that they’re lowering the secrecy level on some of their most hush-hush space programs. The goal? To give the U.S. military an edge and get more collaboration going with private companies and allies.
See, right now these special space projects are buried under piles of security protocols that restrict access. Some are so secret that even their existence is confidential! The Pentagon admits they’ve leaned too hard on slapping the “top secret” stamp on everything space-related.
That made sense 20 years ago, but Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks believes excessive secrecy is now doing more harm than good. So she’s approved a new policy that gives each military branch more flexibility to decide what projects actually need high-level classification. The hope is this will make it easier to share space tech information across the military, businesses, and partner nations.
What’s driving this shift? The reality is the U.S. faces growing threats in space, with rivals like China and Russia developing weapons that could take out American satellites. Rather than hunker down behind closed doors, some Pentagon leaders argue it’s time to showcase U.S. space capabilities and make clear we’re ready to defend assets.
In one example last September, we actually revealed capabilities of a hush-hush “watchdog” satellite called Silent Barker. Officials stated it was designed to monitor potential hostile actions against spacecraft — a signal to adversaries that we’re on alert.
This declassification policy is part of a bigger Pentagon push for joint space operations with allies. They recently expanded membership in a key collaboration initiative from 7 countries to 10, signaling commitment to space defense through cooperation.
