Senior leaders engaged European allies, international partners and industry representatives during the 28th annual Global MILSATCOM conference here, Nov. 2–5, emphasizing that collective security in space requires integrated commitment to build resilient, interoperable satellite communications–not reliance on any single nation’s capabilities.
The conference brought together more than 700 senior military, government and industry leaders from more than 45 nations to examine military satellite communications, spectrum operations and coalition interoperability in a contested and congested space domain.
U.S. Space Force leaders used the forum to advance discussions on resilient satellite communications, shared investment and the operational arrangements required to ensure coalition forces can communicate, decide and act when challenged.
Brig. Gen. (Select) Mark C. Bigley, director of Plans and Programs in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, addressed space superiority as a foundation of modern military power, the need to scale resilient SATCOM capabilities and the importance of accelerating Space Force growth alongside allied capability development.
“The USSF doesn’t view our allies as passive partners–we view you as sovereign teammates with world-class, irreplaceable capabilities,” Bigley said. “The Space Force is opening requirements early and advancing interoperability; in return, we need allies to co-invest in resilient architectures, secure crisis access and the distributed ground infrastructure that makes the coalition stronger.”
Bigley’s remarks reflected the Space Force’s commitment to incorporate allied capabilities earlier in force design, expand information sharing and use open standards to enable interoperability across military and commercial SATCOM systems. The objective is to ensure coalition forces can transition among systems, providers, orbits and national architectures during disruption rather than rely on a single communications pathway.
Brig. Gen. Christopher Fernengel , commander of U.S. Space Forces Europe and Space Forces Africa, emphasized that allies and partners contribute directly to collective resilience through sovereign space capabilities, spectrum cooperation, access agreements, host-nation support, regional awareness, trained personnel and commercial relationships.
“The future of SATCOM resilience will not be built by any nation acting alone,” Fernengel said. “It will be built by allies who invest together, partners who train together, industry and governments that innovate together and operators who are prepared to fight through the EMS battlefield. That is burden sharing. That is deterrence. And that is how we collectively achieve spectrum dominance.”
Fernengel highlighted the importance of establishing the agreements and readiness measures required before a crisis, including aligned procurement and investment, pre-negotiated access to commercial capacity, compatible terminals, spectrum coordination, data-sharing arrangements and distributed ground infrastructure. These measures strengthen the coalition’s ability to maintain communications and mission command in the face of interference or disruption.
Lt. Gen. Dennis Bythewood , commander, U.S. Space Forces–Space and Combined Joint Force Space Component commander for U.S. Space Command , addressed the contested nature of the space domain, vulnerabilities in current space architectures and the strategic importance of resilience and deterrence.
“Orbital warfare tied together with electronic warfare and cyber capabilities [ensures] that at any point in time we’re able to make sure that we can deliver space capabilities,” Bythewood said, “and to make sure that our adversaries, whichever they may be, don’t have the ability to use space-enabled attack in order to hold us or our allies at risk.”
The Space Force’s engagement at Global MILSATCOM reinforced that growth in allied space superiority, resilient architecture and operational readiness are coalition endeavors. By integrating partner capabilities early in planning and force development, the United States and its allies can field more resilient architectures, increase collective readiness and strengthen deterrence.