By Courtney Albon

Aug 14, 2024

作者：考特尼·阿尔本

2024年8月14日

 

The Space Force is working to shore up the global space supply chain. A SubOrbital Express 3 rocket is shown here taking flight in 2022. (Viken Kantarci/AFP via Getty Images)

太空部队正在努力加强全球太空供应链。这里显示的是2022年发射的亚轨道快车3号火箭。（维肯·坎塔基/法新社盖蒂图片社）

 

As concerns mount about whether the world’s industrial base can keep up with the demand for satellite production, the Space Force is working with its close allies to craft a strategy aimed at strengthening the space supply chain.

随着人们对世界工业基础能否满足卫星生产需求的担忧日益加剧，太空部队正在与其亲密盟友合作，制定一项旨在加强太空供应链的战略。

 

The effort started in earnest last fall, when the service’s primary acquisition arm, Space Systems Command, met with international partners and industry leaders to discuss supply chain challenges and identify areas for collaboration.

这项工作始于去年秋天，当时该服务的主要采购部门太空系统司令部与国际合作伙伴和行业领导者会面，讨论供应链挑战并确定合作领域。

 

Now, that work is feeding a larger strategy to close supply gaps and strengthen the military space industrial base, command spokesman Edgar Nava told Defense News — a strategy that could be completed as soon as Fiscal Year 2025.

现在，这项工作正在为缩小供应缺口和加强军事航天工业基础的更大战略提供支持，司令部发言人埃德加·纳瓦告诉《国防新闻》，这一战略最早可能在2025财年完成。

 

The command is currently working with the United Kingdom and Canada on the document and expects to partner with other nations as the effort moves forward, Nava told Defense News in an Aug. 8 statement.

纳瓦在8月8日的一份声明中告诉《国防新闻》，该司令部目前正在与英国和加拿大就这份文件进行合作，并希望随着工作的推进与其他国家合作。

 

This global approach to shoring up space supply chains comes amid concern that the industrial base may not be positioned to support growing demand across military, civil and commercial markets. An April report by several U.S. government space agencies called for more collaboration among international partners to bolster supply chains for satellites, launch infrastructure and advanced communications.

这种支持太空供应链的全球方法是在人们担心工业基础可能无法支持军事、民用和商业市场日益增长的需求之际提出的。美国几个政府航天机构4月份的一份报告呼吁国际合作伙伴加强合作，以加强卫星、发射基础设施和先进通信的供应链。

 

“There are significant concerns regarding our collective production capacity, commercial production capacity and ability to source both the necessary quality and quantity,” the State of the Space Industrial Base report states.

《太空工业基地状况》报告指出：“我们的集体生产能力、商业生产能力以及采购必要质量和数量的能力令人严重担忧。”

 

Space Systems Command hopes to better understand how countries can work as a collective, both on the government level and within industry, to strengthen purchasing power, collaborate on shared requirements and reduce vulnerability within specific supply bases.

太空系统司令部希望更好地了解各国如何在政府层面和行业内部作为一个集体开展工作，以加强购买力，就共同需求进行合作，并减少特定供应基地内的脆弱性。

 

One challenge to that effort, Nava noted, is over-classification on certain programs or missions, which can limit how much information foreign governments share with allied partners.

纳瓦指出，这一努力的一个挑战是对某些项目或任务的过度分类，这可能会限制外国政府与盟友共享的信息量。

 

Over-classification within the U.S. military space enterprise has received senior-level attention in recent years, with Space Force officials calling for changes to the policies that keep the service from sharing information and deepening its cooperation with key international partners.

近年来，美国军事航天企业内部的过度分类受到了高层的关注，太空部队官员呼吁改变政策，阻止该部门共享信息，深化与主要国际合作伙伴的合作。

 

The Pentagon is making some strides in this area, including a recent rewrite of its space classification policy that will lower information-sharing restrictions for some of its most secretive programs.

五角大楼在这方面取得了一些进展，包括最近重写了其太空分类政策，这将降低其一些最秘密项目的信息共享限制。

 

From the Space Force’s standpoint, continuing to reduce classification barriers could have very practical ramifications for international collaboration, allowing countries to share more detailed information about the processes and requirements that drive their industrial base so that other nations know how to better work with them.

从太空部队的角度来看，继续减少分类障碍可能会对国际合作产生非常实际的影响，使各国能够分享有关推动其工业基础的过程和要求的更详细信息，以便其他国家知道如何更好地与他们合作。

 

“There are often unique requirements or processes within the international industrial base, such as limited need for repeatability of components which affects suppliers’ cost and performance objectives across the international supply chain networks,” Nava said. “This is where we need a more open classification approach to sharing those resources and investments with our international partners.”

纳瓦说：“国际工业基础中通常有独特的要求或流程，例如对组件可重复性的需求有限，这会影响供应商在整个国际供应链网络中的成本和性能目标。”，“这就是我们需要更开放的分类方法与我们的国际合作伙伴共享这些资源和投资的地方。”

 

About Courtney Albon

关于考特尼·阿尔本

 

Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.

考特尼·阿尔本是C4ISRNET的太空和新兴技术记者。自2012年以来，她一直报道美国军方，重点报道空军和太空部队。她报道了国防部一些最重大的采购、预算和政策挑战。