ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Space Force hopes its new branch in Japan will spur fresh technology partnerships with the nation, particularly for domain awareness and deep-space observation.
The service on Dec. 4 activated United States Space Forces Japan as its sixth service component. The organization will provide personnel and space expertise to U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific. Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, who leads the Space Force’s command in the region, said the establishment of the new component comes as Japan’s Ministry of Defense is prioritizing space in its national defense strategy — pledging to spend billions to improve on-orbit capabilities.
“To the extent that we’re able to shape and inform those investments in a way that makes working and fighting alongside allies more interoperable and more effective, I wanted to have an organization that could contribute to that solution,” he told reporters Tuesday at the Space Force Association Conference in Orlando, Fla.
The U.S. and Japan have been forging closer ties over the last year, with the Defense Department announcing in July it would elevate its command in Japan to a three-star billet that allows its leader to plan large operations with the country. And last month, the U.S. and Australia agreed to a more robust slate of exercises and trainings with Japan beginning with next year’s Talisman Sabre in Queensland.
Japan’s space endeavors include investments in space domain awareness — a top priority for the U.S. Space Force. In 2020, Japan agreed to host U.S. space domain awareness payloads on two satellites in the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System constellation, essentially its version of GPS. Those satellites will launch in 2025 and 2026.
Mastalir said the Space Force is also interested in Japan’s development of a deep-space radar and a standalone space domain awareness satellite slated to launch in the next few years.
“Having more space domain awareness capability, especially from a close ally like Japan, is only going to be helpful,” he said.
Since 2019, the Space Force has established service components to U.S. Space Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Central Command as well as U.S. European and Africa commands.
For the last two years, the service has been conducting mission analyses of its operations at those components to forge a plan for how it will flow forces to combatant commands.
Mastalir said the document, known as a programming plan, is complete and awaiting final approval from Space Force leadership.
“Essentially this is a blueprint for how Space Force service components will contribute to combat and commands as we stand up other components around the globe,” he said.
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.
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