Taking place as a hybrid event on September 29, 2022 as part of the 2022 Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference, the 2022 AMOS Dialogue discussed using SSA capabilities to verify future space security agreements. The discussion took place under Chatham House Rule: topics addressed could be used in materials prepared by SWF and/or MEDB in their future endeavors but would not be attributed to any given speaker.
The major takeaway from this year’s Dialogue is that SSA can likely be used to verify certain threats to space systems in orbit, such as destructive ASAT tests and uncoordinated close approaches, but is less helpful in verifying threats that are not as easy to physically attribute, such as cyberattacks and electronic warfare. SSA in general can help both in identifying patterns of life for normal space activities and when space objects diverge from those normal patterns, as well as verifying that behaviors agreed to as part of arms control discussions are being followed. However, SSA is simply technical information about activities in space: for a verification regime to fully function, it needs an analytical aspect to it to figure out what the measurements mean and validate them in a way that can be trusted by multiple parties.
Read the full report authored by the Secure World Foundation