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Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

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Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#11

Post by sandworm101 »

tw04 wrote: post #6

This is essentially about letting Space-X in on more military missions that today they can only pass through Boeing and co. Presumably Space-X wasn't willing to take an entire chunk of staff and dedicate them to military-only missions and/or had staff that couldn't even pass the stringent security clearance requirements. The US government still wants to utilize them for missions, especially with starship and its payl…

I think this is above anything spacex would need to be told about. Spacex is the delivery driver. They need to know where the sat is going, how much it weighs, and a bit about its needs. They dont need to know what the sat is actually doing, let alone how that function ties into any larger programs.

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#12

Post by sitzkrieg »

tw04 wrote: post #6

This is essentially about letting Space-X in on more military missions that today they can only pass through Boeing and co. Presumably Space-X wasn't willing to take an entire chunk of staff and dedicate them to military-only missions and/or had staff that couldn't even pass the stringent security clearance requirements. The US government still wants to utilize them for missions, especially with starship and its payl…

as if spacex is not capable (and does) poach cleared personnel. this is not uncommon

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#13

Post by alephnerd »

dylan604 wrote: post #8
alephnerd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will also help Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and other military contractors as well. It's good to see the changes happening to help better support our R&D capacity. The old method of having a single contractor monopolize an entire SKU was slowing down innovation and procurement.

It'll only help Boeing if they can pull their head out of their backside. To me, this is DoD realizing the Boeing can't do what they claim they can and need a new vendor. It's just that new vendor needs to have the rules modified a bit so they can qualify.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is still fairly competitive. The issues with Boeing are occurring in Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), which is basically just McDonnell Douglas.

BDS and BCA are both essentially independent of each other.

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#14

Post by Dalewyn »

dylan604 wrote: post #8
alephnerd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will also help Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and other military contractors as well. It's good to see the changes happening to help better support our R&D capacity. The old method of having a single contractor monopolize an entire SKU was slowing down innovation and procurement.

It'll only help Boeing if they can pull their head out of their backside. To me, this is DoD realizing the Boeing can't do what they claim they can and need a new vendor. It's just that new vendor needs to have the rules modified a bit so they can qualify.

The DoD (or at least the US Air Force) has been very aware Boeing can't deliver for a long time, between the KC-46 tanker and its inability to refuel, the F-15EX Eagle II and its failing to deliver on marketing promises, the V-22 Osprey and its many crashes including the most recent in November that led to a grounding across the services, and more.

If this is a move to give Boeing's competitors (eg: Lockheed Martin, SpaceX) more bidding power, I welcome it.

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#15

Post by igleria »

> The policy does not mean that these programs and technologies will now be fully unclassified and revealed to the public; instead, it will lower their classification levels in order to share some technologies and programs with private industry and international allies to help the U.S. build an "asymmetric advantage and force multiplier that neither China nor Russia could ever hope to match," Plumb said in a DoD statement.

is this... propaganda for internal and/or external consumption?

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#16

Post by dylan604 »

alephnerd wrote: post #13
dylan604 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll only help Boeing if they can pull their head out of their backside. To me, this is DoD realizing the Boeing can't do what they claim they can and need a new vendor. It's just that new vendor needs to have the rules modified a bit so they can qualify.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is still fairly competitive. The issues with Boeing are occurring in Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), which is basically just McDonnell Douglas. BDS and BCA are both essentially independent of each other.

Well, you're not reassuring me since Starliner cannot get off the ground.

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#17

Post by MichaelZuo »

igleria wrote: post #15

> The policy does not mean that these programs and technologies will now be fully unclassified and revealed to the public; instead, it will lower their classification levels in order to share some technologies and programs with private industry and international allies to help the U.S. build an "asymmetric advantage and force multiplier that neither China nor Russia could ever hope to match," Plumb said in a DoD stat…

Hard to say, the vast majority of people with 'Top Secret' clearances don't ever read a single actual regular 'Top Secret' document, even if they work at the same place for years.

So if it's declassified down it's unlikely more than maybe 50k people will ever know about it.

But then again it could be some super secret thing where previously only 500 people knew about it, or had the full picture, so that would represent a substantial loosening of restrictions.

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#18

Post by BWStearns »

Aside from increasing contractor availability this has the bonus of increasing the access to these capabilities for actual operations (both ours and our allies'). If your magic satellite that can tell who in a crowd is running a fever is SAPed then you might not be able to use it to help your troops or your allies hunt down artillery launches (as an example). So then you need to either do some parallel construction to mask the actual source of the information or just sit by and not help at all.

So hopefully this means that we'll see some previously exotic space capabilities trickle down into more pedestrian use cases.

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#19

Post by AlexAndScripts »

dylan604 wrote: post #16
alephnerd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is still fairly competitive. The issues with Boeing are occurring in Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), which is basically just McDonnell Douglas. BDS and BCA are both essentially independent of each other.

Well, you're not reassuring me since Starliner cannot get off the ground.

Or keep its doors attached.

Re: Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

#20

Post by empath-nirvana »

igleria wrote: post #15

> The policy does not mean that these programs and technologies will now be fully unclassified and revealed to the public; instead, it will lower their classification levels in order to share some technologies and programs with private industry and international allies to help the U.S. build an "asymmetric advantage and force multiplier that neither China nor Russia could ever hope to match," Plumb said in a DoD stat…

It's just normal DoD puffery that's meant to get the policy enacted.
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