Italy and the US held a first bilateral space dialogue Oct. 11-12, 2024 in Rome, signing a wide-ranging cooperation agreement. (Photo credit: US Embassy in Italy)
WASHINGTON — Following a first-ever bilateral space dialogue in Rome, the US and Italy on Oct. 15 inked a wide-ranging cooperation agreement — including strengthening national security space ties on issues such as space domain awareness and commercial integration.
“The U.S.-Italy Space Dialogue’s purpose is to strengthen cooperation and advance bilateral collaboration in space matters,” according to the joint statement, following the Oct. 11 and 12 meeting between US and Italian interagency delegations.
“Both sides reiterated their strong determination to expand already robust bilateral cooperation in a variety of areas, including addressing the climate crisis and sustainable and safe use of outer space; preserving outer space heritage; advancing national security space cooperation and information sharing; and strengthening bilateral commercial space cooperation,” it added.
Italy in 2020 stood up a new Space Operations Command and in 2023 signed an agreement to second a liaison officer to US Space Command. It also is one of the few European countries operating its own fleet of military satellites, including for communications and remote sensing. For example, the Italian Ministry of Defense currently is developing an updated version of its Sicral telecomms birds. The Italian space agency — which in January signed a space cooperation agreement with the nation’s armed forces — also is working to field a new generation of dual-use (civil/military) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites to replace its aging COSMO-Skymed constellation, called CSG.
The new statement stressed the need for tighter ties among the two NATO allies due to the “growing scope of counter-space and related threats and potential adversaries increasing use of space to track and potentially target” allied forces. The two sides pledged “to strengthen the coordination of national security space activities with other allies and partners around the globe, including by leveraging innovative commercial space capabilities, to ensure access to critical space-based services and improve space domain awareness” as well as satellite cybersecurity.
The statement explained that Rome and Washington now are negotiating a Technology Safeguards Agreement that would create the legal and technical framework needed to allow US commercial space launch from Italy and ease commercial partnering on satellite and space systems. This would allow the Pentagon and US Space Force to tap into an expanded industrial base as part of their ambitious plans to created a “hybrid” space architecture that links satellites operated by the US and allied governments, as well as private companies.
The two sides further pledged to jointly support international acceptance of voluntary norms of behavior for on-orbit activities, including the US-initiated call for a UN-wide moratorium on testing of debris-creating anti-satellite missiles. And in an obvious dig at Russia — which the US has accused of developing a space-based nuclear weapon — the joint statement also reaffirmed Italian and US support for the 1967 Outer Space Treaty’s ban on placing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit.