NATO Plans to Adopt One Primary Entrance for Space Industry in Line with Space Force's Strategy
Space Force and NATO Collaborate to Enhance Commercial Space Sector Security
The United States Space Force (USSF) and NATO have joined forces to create a unified access point for vendors in the commercial space sector to interact with military and alliance acquirers. This collaboration, known as the Space Force's Front Door program, is aimed at facilitating supply chain analysis and identifying potential threats.
The USSF established its Front Door program in 2022 under Space Systems Command, serving as a single authoritative source of vendor data and a gateway to connect vendors with government acquisition opportunities while analyzing supply chains for vulnerabilities and threats. The program is part of a multi-faceted team that stretches beyond the Space Force to the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of the Air Force.
NATO, following the USSF’s lead, included a similar Front Door in its 2025 Commercial Space Strategy. This program is intended to streamline commercial space company engagement across NATO as a whole and improve tracking of innovations and risks within member states’ supply chains.
The envisioned connection between these two systems would allow companies from NATO member nations to be included in the Space Force’s supplier database, enhancing collective visibility and threat identification across allied supply chains. This approach addresses concerns about supply chain vulnerabilities to disruptions or malicious interference by fostering transparency and cooperation among industry partners and military stakeholders across the alliance.
The Space Force's Front Door program is working towards mandating that all interactions with commercial vendors are shared in a system, ensuring the broader government can understand these interactions. The program has limited capabilities in analyzing supply chain risk and is looking to grow its capabilities using commercial tools.
One of the challenges faced by the Space Force's Front Door program is getting other elements of the Space Force and wider DoD to make it the central repository of authoritative data about space vendors. The analysis conducted by the program extends "across the spectrum of conflict," according to Vigliotti.
The Space Force's Front Door Director, Victor Vigliotti, plans to visit NATO in the next month or so to discuss the further integration and technical linkage of the two systems, aiming to enhance joint supply chain resilience and security. The key to the Space Force's Front Door concept is "two-way transparency," which allows for a better understanding of what's available in the market and potential threats in the supply chain.
The Space Force is ready to assist NATO in building its Front Door system, with the NATO Commercial Space Strategy, published earlier this year, committing the alliance to a single access point model. For vendors whose products are to be integrated into Space Force systems, a deeper level of assessment is required, and the Space Force works with intelligence shops to understand the bigger picture of these vendors. The Space Force's Front Door program can leverage the resources of the intelligence community to vet potential suppliers.
In conclusion, the collaboration between the Space Force and NATO is in its early stages, but it represents a significant step towards enhancing the security and transparency of the commercial space sector across allied nations. The Space Force's Front Door program serves as a model and operational partner for NATO's Commercial Space Strategy in building a comprehensive, interoperable infrastructure for supply chain analysis and potential threat identification.
- The Space Force's Front Door program, in collaboration with NATO's similar Front Door, aims to create a unified platform for analyzing supply chain vulnerabilities and threats across both the Space Force and NATO.
- The Space Force is prepared to aid NATO in building its Front Door system, using their program as a model and operational partner for supply chain transparency and potential threat identification.
- The joint collaboration between the Space Force and NATO is aimed at enhancing security and transparency in the commercial space sector, facilitating a better understanding of market availability and potential threats in the supply chain.
