Session 2.8f: Update - Space Resilience for the ADF - opportunities and risks
Tracks
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| Wednesday, November 19, 2025 |
| 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Swan Room |
Details
As the ADF invests in future space capabilities, including sovereign space systems, it does so in a contested and congested space domain. Its vital that Australia ensure resilience and enhance access to space in a manner that maintains the ability of the ADF to be supported from orbit. A traditional approach of investment in large satellites that take a decade to acquire is no longer suitable for Australia's strategic and operational circumstances.
This presentation makes the case for building resilient space architectures based around small satellite constellations that can be developed rapidly through investment in commercial space actors, and launched and supported from Australia. This would give us flexibility to augment, and if necessary reconsitutute, lost capability when needed. The paper will consider the growing counterspace threats emerging that could challenge Australia's access to space, and examine policy and capability responses to those threats.
It will explore how investment into sovereign satellite development, and sovereign space lift through commercial space investment, can enhance ADF space resilience. It will consider the importance of rapid manufacturing of small satellite systems, and explore investment in launch capabilities that allow responsive space access. It makes the case that Australia's space sector must adopt rapid and agile approaches to meeting national capability requirements for defence and security needs, and note the importance of growing small and medium enterprises as a key player in Australia's future space industry.
Speaker
Dr Malcolm Davis
Senior Analyst In Defence Strategy
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute
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Biography
Dr Malcolm Davis joined ASPI as a Senior Analyst in Defence Strategy and Capability in January 2016.
Prior to this he was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in China-Western Relations with the Faculty of Society and Design at Bond University from March 2012 to January 2016, and he currently retains an Honorary Assistant Professor position in the Faculty. He has worked with the Department of Defence, both in Navy Headquarters in the Strategy and Force Structure area, and with Strategic Policy Division in the Strategic Policy Guidance and Strategic External Relations and Education sections from November 2007 to March 2012. Prior to this appointment he was a Lecturer in Defence Studies with Kings College London at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, in Shrivenham, UK, from June 2000 to October 2007.
He holds a PhD in Strategic Studies from the University of Hull as well as two Masters degrees in Strategic Studies, including from the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. His main research focus is on defence strategy and capability development, military technology, and the future of warfare.
