U.S. Should Leverage Middle East Partners to Boost Space Capabilities
As Iran-backed projectile attacks continue to inflict significant and tragic costs across the Middle East, space-based sensors could help detect those launches earlier and faster. Advances by U.S. regional partners—namely Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Israel—in satellite development provide an opportunity to develop integrated space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities in the Middle East.
The United States should better leverage its partners in the Middle East by collectively enhancing space-based ISR through joint research and development (R&D) ventures, leveraging emerging space technologies like nanosatellites and hyperspectral satellites, and incorporating space-based assets into bilateral and multilateral drills with regional partners.