Space Force, NGA leaders discuss power of collaboration

Published April 9, 2025
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AFNS) -- U.S. Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Mike Guetlein and U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency director, took part in a fireside chat moderated by Tanya Pemberton, Aerospace Corporation executive vice president, in Colorado Springs, April 8.

Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein speaks during a Fireside Chat at the Space Symposium. — U.S. Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Mike Guetlein, center, and U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency director, right, speak during a Fireside Chat at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 8, 2025. The Space Symposium, created in 1984 by Space Foundation, is the premier assembly of the global space community, bringing together more than 10,000 space professionals, business leaders and decision-makers. (U.S. Air Force photo by Chad Trujillo)

The discussion was part of the 40th Space Symposium, held by the Space Foundation to drive conversations on data, partnerships and innovation across the space industry. Guetlein and Whitworth’s fireside chat focused specifically on opportunities and challenges to collaborate across the intelligence community – military and civil.

“There are more opportunities than there are challenges,” Guetlein said. “It is going to be absolutely imperative to the protection and defense of this nation that we can integrate and network these capabilities and seamlessly share data, share situational awareness, [and] not duplicate development efforts going forward [to] optimize the utility of our resources.”

Title 10 provides the legal framework for the roles, missions and organizations of the Department of Defense, including the U.S. Space Force, while Title 50 provides the legal framework for the roles and responsibilities of the intelligence community, including the NGA. The distinctions between these roles are clear, however, there’s a growing need for integration.

“NGA relies on the warfighting domain of space and I would like to think that the warfighting domain of space relies on NGA as well,” Whitworth said. “One of the things that we have a responsibility to do at NGA is actually to be a union between Title 10 and Title 50.”

Growing threats in space have driven efforts on both sides to better integrate the two missions.

“The data is coming from space, so we the Space Force need to protect and defend those capabilities to ensure we have seamless transition of that data to both the Title 10 and Title 50 sides to protect and defend the nation,” Guetlein said.

Both leaders spoke on the efforts to maximize their partnership through integration and the minimization of duplicative efforts when possible.

“Some duplication is going to be inevitable, and some duplication is always going to be beneficial. But what we want to do is reduce and eliminate as much of the duplication as we possibly can to save resources. That comes from a very close partnership between the organizations,” Guetlein said.

“It really is about ensuring unity and integration. We convene everyone from Title 10 and Title 50 to discuss our standards and the things we’re talking about today – integration and unity,” Whitworth said.

Whitworth spoke of an example of a current thriving partnership, the Joint Overhead Persistent-Infrared Center, which is comprised of the NGA, USSF and U.S. Space Command.

“The JOPC still exists to this day, and it was one of our first real success stories of a union between Title 10 and Title 50. It’s still going, and it’s been a good precedent for the JMMC (Joint Mission Management Center),” Whitworth said.

On the topic of partnerships, conversation covered how industry leaders can support innovation and development.

“For [the USSF], we want your innovation,” Guetlein said. “I cannot hire enough cyber experts, network experts, data experts, IT experts, to solve my problems. I need to really rely on innovation coming out of industry. The good thing is that there’s more innovation coming out today than there ever has been.”

Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein speaks during a Fireside Chat. — U.S. Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein speaks during a Fireside Chat at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 8, 2025. The Space Symposium, created in 1984 by Space Foundation, is the premier assembly of the global space community, bringing together more than 10,000 space professionals, business leaders and decision-makers. (U.S. Air Force photo by Chad Trujillo)

According to Guetlein, the USSF is trying to leverage that innovation through several collaboration efforts, including a Unified Data Library and a Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications, and Processing Lab. Both provide opportunities for collaborative innovation between the USSF and industry to accelerate intelligence support to the warfighter.

“Space is too big for any organization to go at it alone, so we are absolutely dependent on our partnerships,” Guetlein said. “Partnerships with commercial, partnerships with academia, partnerships with industry, [and] partnerships with our allied partners.”