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The US Space Force saw a six-fold increase in demand for foreign military sales last year – a growth the service attributes to the increasingly important role space systems play in global economic and national security.
Space Systems Command’s FMS division saw a 500% increase in requests between 2023 and 2024. The agency completed its largest FMS agreement to date last week: a $126 million deal with the Canadian Armed Forces that will give the country access to the US Space Force’s Mobile User Objective System, a satellite fleet that can provide ultra-high frequency satellite communications to troops operating during inclement weather and challenging terrain.
According to Deanna Ryals, the agency’s director of international affairs, that increased interest extends across a range of satellites and sensors. And it comes as the US is taking a more progressive stance on exporting space capabilities to other countries.
“As countries have begun to prioritize space as a national need or a national capability in which they want to invest, many countries do not yet have their own space industrial base,” Ryals told reporters in a briefing at the Space Industry Days conference from SSC in Los Angeles. “People are starting to see the benefit of military space and commercial space, and that’s driving the need for a way to acquire it.”
The US has traditionally maintained tight control over its sovereign space systems, sharing technology and hardware only with a select few partners due to security concerns. But because space technologies such as GPS and satellite communications play an increasingly prominent role in everyday life, Ryals said, and it’s harder to make a case against them giving friendly nations access to American-made systems.
With that question in mind, the service is working closely with the Air Force International Affairs Office to improve the FMS process. Earlier this year, the Air Force unveiled a Space Technology and Resources Baseline, which provides a list of capabilities within each mission area that have been approved for export. The list includes everything from satellites and ground radars to sensors and component technologies such as cameras or mirrors.
Having that document — which was created with input from her office and is updated with input from industry partners — helps streamline the sales process, Ryals said.
“If we have some capabilities that we know we have ready to sell or export, then it makes it a lot easier if we assess in advance that these are assets that we are going to sell,” he says. she said.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. Since 2012, she has covered the U.S. military, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Department of Defense’s key acquisition, budget, and policy challenges.