Civilian-defence collaboration needed to unlock benefits of space tech for public sector

Be it a natural disaster cutting off communications or a rising geopolitical tension at sea, immediate and precise information becomes essential to intervene the situation. 

And earth observation (EO) satellites tend to be used to provide this vital intelligence. Often in real-time and covering wide areas, EO data can be used in a wide range of civilian, environmental, and defence applications. 

Increasingly, governments like Singapore are looking to tap into private sector expertise and mainstream EO solutions to solve a variety of practical challenges. 

However, there remained significant hurdles for governments to fully harness the power of such space data and tech. 

At a recent webinar, space research and industry leaders emphasised three key priorities for governments to effectively tap into space tech and data for public good. 

The priorities were for civilian and defence agencies to co-develop shared procurement pathways, seamless data integration between advanced solutions and legacy systems, and ensuring robust data access controls to improve security. 

Hosted by GovInsider and Planet, the webinar was titled Eyes in the Sky: Mainstreaming Advanced Satellite Tech for APAC's Defence involving speakers from public-private partnership consultancy Access Partnership, independent think tank Institute of Geoeconomics and Planet.  

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What 'Space-as-a-Service' means for governments 

“The general trend is that there will be more of this integration of commercial and government capabilities from Asia-Pacific nations,” said Kota Umeda, Research Fellow, Institute of Geoeconomics, International House of Japan.  

Umeda was formerly the Associate Senior Administrator, Security and Information Systems Department, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), for about a decade.  

He said that Japan's Ministry of Defence has been procuring satellite imagery from commercial providers since the 1980s. 

The rise of private providers, from large corporations to startups, he said, has allowed governments to subscribe to data streams, rather than to purchase individual images and rely on their own specialists for interpretation. 

This was further amplified by artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics providers looking to leverage the growing volume of data, he added. 

Umeda noted that the Space-as-a-Service model – where space tech and data are provided on a subscription basis – has made it easier and cheaper for developing countries to access up-to-date data and advanced tech, even without sovereign space capabilities. 

This, in turn, also allowed governments to shorten analysis time and target priority areas more effectively, he said. 

“Commercial space tech can be a good ally to governments in their strategic decision making,” added Access Partnership’s Head of Space and Development, Hamza Hameed, especially when considering the sensitive nature of military activities in contested waterways. 

He seconded Umeda’s point that developing countries could now independently verify military activities without relying on sovereign partners as they were used to in the past.

Nevertheless, Umeda emphasised the need for governments to still build their own space capabilities, which might take a good five to ten years, while leveraging diverse private sector expertise to avoid vendor lock-in. 

Procurement needs to evolve 

Access Partnership’s Hameed pointed out the need for civilian agencies and defence agencies to work together to establish shared procurement pathways.  

This collaboration is particularly beneficial when it comes to EO solutions given their versatile applications in areas like disaster response and maritime security.  

Drawing from his experience working with both the government and private sector, he recommended governments establish a national coordination body to bring together different stakeholders under a unified procurement framework. 

Agencies often work in isolation, using separate systems for licensing and procurement, he said, which could lead to duplicated efforts, inefficiencies, and underutilised commercial capabilities that a country could otherwise access. 

Government procurement is also traditionally focused on hardware acquisition, he noted, making it challenging for public agencies to utilise demand-driven data services. 

This often resulted in prolonged procurement cycles, delaying the deployment of new technology. 

“It's really that agile procurement process and decision-making process that can help governments move forward in working with commercial providers,” he shared. 

Data needs to talk through legacy systems 

Planet’s APAC Strategic Business Development Lead, Tom Farrow, said it was important for governments to put in place infrastructure that could integrate new ways of collecting data with legacy systems. 

For EO data to be truly useful, it must be able to flow directly and be processed by established geospatial intelligence systems, such as C4ISR for military and GEOINT for geospatial, that other public and private organisations already rely on, he added. 

He shared that governments must have a roadmap that considers this public-private integration, as well as control access to ensure data security and confidentiality.  

Without seamless integration between private and public systems, data would remain isolated and not contribute effectively to operations and decision making. 

Institute of Geoeconomics' Umeda recently also published an article on Japan's Defence Ministry facing an integration challenge while pursuing innovative programs and tapping into commercial technologies.

You can access the full webinar on-demand here.