Release of the Combined Space Operations Vision 2031 statement

23 February 2022

Senior Defence officials from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA, have come together to release the Combined Space Operations (CSpO) Vision 2031 statement.

Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld AO, DSC, said he welcomed the release of the Vision statement, which reflects the Government’s commitment to strengthening our international relationships to support and protect Australia’s interests in space.

“By releasing the Vision statement, we affirm Australia’s commitment to space cooperation with international partners and allies to ensure that space remains safe, secure and accessible to all,” Air Marshal Hupfeld said.

“The Vision statement underlines CSpO partners’ shared values and goals to the international community in a transparent manner, including our intent to lead as responsible actors in the space domain.”

CSpO focusses on information sharing, developing aligned policies and maximising the combined capabilities of participating nations. Member nations seek to generate and improve cooperation, coordination, and interoperability, to sustain freedom of action in space, optimise resources, enhance mission assurance and resilience, and prevent conflict.

The statement outlines a ten year vision, and articulates the mission, guiding principles and objectives of the CSpO initiative.

“The Australian public is dependent on space for positioning, navigating and timing, communications, weather forecasting and broadcasting information. Space is also critical to ADF warfighting effectiveness, situational awareness and delivery of real-time communications and information,” Air Marshal Hupfeld said.

“As space becomes more contested and congested, CSpO will help Australia coordinate on military space issues, and enhance both individual and collective space capabilities to protect our national interests and assure our access to space.”

The CSpO Vision 2031 statement is available at the Departments website.

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