In a major step forward for NATO’s ability to operate effectively in the Space Domain, the Alliance recently released its first Commercial Space Strategy endorsed by Allied Defence Ministers in February 2025. This strategy marks a decisive inflection point in how NATO works with commercial providers, integrating their rapid innovation cycles and capabilities to reinforce the Alliance’s deterrence and defence posture.
The strategy’s release comes amid significant transformation in the global Space landscape. What was once the domain of a few state actors has become a dynamic ecosystem of commercial companies, academic institutions, and start-ups driving forward new technologies at unprecedented speed. The number of satellites in orbit has increased dramatically in recent years, most of them operated by the private sector, resulting in a more congested and contested environment. This new reality underpins NATO’s recognition of Space as an operational domain since 2019, alongside land, air, maritime, and cyber.
As NATO’s warfare development command, Allied Command Transformation plays a central role in ensuring that this new strategy is not simply aspirational but implemented with the clarity and urgency that current geopolitical and technological trends demand. Working in close coordination with the International Staff’s Defence Investment Division, Allied Command Transformation is advancing multiple implementation activities that will enhance interoperability, resilience, and responsiveness across the Alliance’s Space-related functions.
- Why Commercial Space?
The strategic logic is straightforward: no single nation or Alliance entity can match the agility and scale of the commercial Space sector. Satellite constellations, Earth observation platforms, and advanced sensors are being launched and upgraded far faster by private entities than traditional government acquisition cycles allow. The Ukrainian crisis also became the first conflict where commercial Space capabilities have played a significant role. Rather than duplicating efforts, NATO is positioning itself to procure services directly from commercial providers, deliberately and early, bringing this knowledge into NATO exercises, planning, and operations.
From a military standpoint, this commercial integration supports mission-critical needs: persistent surveillance, secure communications, and domain awareness. But more than that, it reflects a deeper recognition that commercial innovation is now a strategic advantage, and NATO must be able to tap into it consistently across all phases of competition and conflict.
- Building Stronger Connections
At the heart of the strategy is a call for stronger engagement and coordination between NATO and the commercial sector. The strategy sets out several key objectives to guide this cooperation:
Leverage the use of commercial solutions to meet NATO’s Space requirements in a flexible and timely manner
Ensure continuous access to commercial Space services during all phases of operations
Enhance coherence in how NATO engages with the commercial sector across Allied nations
These priorities reflect a deliberate effort to position NATO as a more agile and forward-leaning actor in the Space Domain, without seeking to develop Space capabilities of its own. Rather, the strategy emphasizes the importance of complementing Allied national capabilities through commercial procurement and multinational cooperation. By coordinating across national and commercial sources, NATO aims to strengthen operational effectiveness, reduce duplication, and enhance interoperability.
- Allied Command Transformation’s Role in Driving Implementation
Allied Command Transformation is well positioned to serve as a catalyst for experimentation and integration. As the Alliance’s hub for future capability development, the command ensures that commercial capabilities are not bolted on as afterthoughts but incorporated from the outset in NATO’s force development processes.
This includes assessing how commercial Space services can inform long-term defence planning, identify areas of operational advantage, and drive innovation through testbeds and trials. One key focus is the creation of a dedicated commercial Space interface, a streamlined gateway for commercial providers to engage with NATO procurement and mission areas. This “front door” approach, supported in part by Allied Command Transformation, aims to reduce bureaucratic friction while preserving NATO’s high standards for security and interoperability.
In parallel, Allied Command Transformation is working with other NATO bodies to shape the upcoming Implementation Plan, which will translate strategic objectives into actionable tasks. This plan will be developed in consultation with industry, keeping pace with technological shifts and ensuring that NATO remains a relevant and attractive partner for commercial innovators.
- Demonstrating Capability at CWIX25
These efforts are not taking place in isolation. As part of NATO’s ongoing experimentation campaign, as Allied Command Transformation once again hosted the Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation, eXamination, eXercise (CWIX) 2025, the Space Functional Area demonstrated tangible use cases for commercial integration in support of NATO operations.
As the NATO Space community is in the process of developing its tool requirements, informing the process through interoperability is key to accurate design specifications and leveraging commercial advancements. All the use cases contributed to NATO’s Space Domain taxonomy, organized around the 3 main Operational Functions:
Space Domain Awareness (SDA) – which is the understanding or comprehension of the environment to include threats.
Operational Space Support (OSS) – which is the ability to collect national and commercial Space DPS and transform them into viable NATO processes.
Space Domain Coordination (SDC) – which is the ability to rapidly transfer Space-relevant information from one organization within the NATO Command Structure to another, using the right tool or network, in the right format for all essential users.
- A Future-Oriented Alliance
The approval of NATO’s Commercial Space Strategy signals that Space is no longer a niche concern. It is an operational domain that is critical to the Alliance’s collective security, and Allied Command Transformation is committed to ensuring NATO leverages all available tools, governmental and commercial alike, to stay ahead of threats and maintain credible deterrence.
As the Space Domain continues to evolve, so will NATO’s approach. By building early and sustained partnerships with the commercial sector, NATO is not only increasing its resilience but also embracing the strategic realities of 21st-century warfare.