Nigerian Nation Security Policies: Shaping the Commercial Space & Satellite Arena

By Andrew Aroh

Commercial Space & Satellite capabilities are increasingly important to the ability of Nigeria to achieve its national security objectives. Consequently, fostering Commercial Space & Satellite will shift from a secondary consideration concerned with the economic health of Nigeria, to a necessary strategy for achieving military and intelligence mission objectives.

This will lead to new programs and policies aimed at ensuring commercial capabilities are available in the future.

As a result, Nigerian National Security Space & Satellite decisions will have a greater effect on the Global Commercial Space & Satellite Industry than they have in the past.

Moreover, the growing reliance on commercial space & satellite occurs in the context of an increasingly International Commercial Space & Satellite Industry. Military officials will need to buy space products and services from available provider. Such procurement measures may also occur when the military is trying to achieve desirable redundancy, or even as a mechanism for negotiating sharing of information about a provider’s operation or customers.

This will require new approaches to ensuring access to transponders or imagery in times of conflict, including a focus on economic relationships where no policy control can be exercised. Even controlling access owned by Nigerian firms may require new approaches.

An aggressive policy, campaign in the interest of Nigerian National Security could drive customers to capable providers.

There are important steps that can improve the future availability of Commercial Space & Satellite capabilities needed for Nigerian National Security.

• First, National Security Space & Satellite Decisions should explicitly consider impacts on the Commercial Space & Satellite Industry, focusing on long-term availability of critical capabilities. To do this, decision-makers need access to an independent assessment capability that provides insight into the potential impact of space-related decisions on the Commercial Space & Satellite Industry, similar to Regulatory Impact Assessments. Direct Industry Impact is critical to this process, but should not be single source of analysis.
• Second, the Nigerian military should further establish economic relations with commercial service providers to augment or replace policy-driven relations. Decision-makers need routine access to flexible financial and contractual mechanisms such as the ability to enter into long-term contracts for routine and surge capacity or to negotiate in advance to pay premium prices for preferential access.
• Third, interoperability among Space & Satellite Systems should be a high priority. Military and Intelligence Space & Satellite Acquisitions should incorporate requirements for interoperability with commercial systems; ideally, both space-based and related terrestrial systems. This should include aggressive government support for development and application of standards fostering interoperability and possible direct support to industry for implementation. Interoperable systems would reduce vulnerability by enabling quick reconfiguration to provide backup as well as to reduce cost and improve efficiency.
• Fourth, the requirements definition process for National Security Space & Satellite Systems should enable iteration to reflect the cost savings and reduced time frames associated with commercially available ‘’80 percent’’ solutions.
• Finally, the Nigerian government needs to establish mechanisms for routine communication with the Space & Satellite Industry that are more permanent and robust than ad hoc committees, limited mandate advisory groups and individual marketing efforts.

Commercial entities need to understand military requirements; government planners need to understand commercial capabilities and non-defense Commercial Space & Satellite firms need a place at the table. This interaction would be invaluable to R&D planning and to enabling cost trades. It would allow industry to participate in determining how impacts on industry are assessed and in defining the options that government decision-makers consider.

This expanded arsenal of strategies will however, face challenges if the acquisition system is not geared toward market driven flexibility. Economic relationships with foreign providers will probably require reaching some degree of diplomatic or policy accommodations with the other national governments.

Justifying expenditures on interoperability and mechanisms for communication with industry may be challenging even when benefits are expected to exceed costs.

Nigerian providers may have objections to government relationships with their competitors. There may be perceptions that inappropriate government control is being exerted over marketplace interactions, and that a de-factor industrial policy is being established. And of course, security concerns will always be part of decisions regarding use of commercial products and services.

The bottom line, however, is that Nigerian National security will rely on the Global Commercial Space & Satellite Industry for the foreseeable future and national security decisions must reflect that reality.

Andrew Aroh is President SSPI Nigeria