Sharing top secret documents risks leaking military-related information

New Zealand spy agencies and the government are keeping a low profile as they are implicated in the offensive of top-secret documents assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran.

The United States is currently investigating who had access – and that includes the Five Eyes intelligence group, which also includes New Zealand.

Sharing military-related intelligence information or technology increases the risk of leaks or hacks, but several new steps are still being taken on this front.

These include the US relaxing rules on the sale of space technology to close allies and the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) increasing cooperation with military forces on ground targets.

A third step – a new deal between eight spaceports in six countries – excludes New Zealand. Despite several studies into building launch pads at Kaitorete Spit in Canterbury, Space Minister Judith Collins said on Monday: “We have no plans to fund a spaceport, but the Tāwhaki Aerospace Center provides excellent services for horizontal launch – not vertical.”

A document compiled by the NGA is included in the Israel-Iran leak.

The NGA – which is under pressure in the US to provide more help to military commanders – is both a combat support and central intelligence service, and a dominant part of an allied geospatial intelligence system (ASG).

The ASG includes GEOINT New Zealand, a team of armed forces and spy agency personnel.

GEOINT – or geointelligence – like many space technologies, has dual utility for military and civil/commercial applications, such as mapping and responding to natural disasters.

Part of the ASG’s job description is to build an “integrated and mutually supportive allied GEOINT enterprise to meet individual and collective warfare and intelligence needs.”

“By working together, FVEY partners provide each other with global, regional and civil GEOINT support,” it said.

When asked about the Israel-Iran breach, the spy agency GCSB and its minister Judith Collins said they did not comment on intelligence matters.

The GCSB recently cut $7 million from its budget, including for training and development.

When asked whether this could impact the company’s ability to keep information secure, the company replied that the headcount between it and the SIS would actually be slightly higher in 2024.

“The intelligence community has also undertaken a joint program of work to ensure its financial sustainability in the current fiscal environment,” the GCSB said.

“Information security is always the top priority for the secret services.”

The Greens pushed back, asking in Parliament whether New Zealand would be cautious enough about links to the US’s increasing space activities to integrate its allies if they could help Israel during the war in Gaza.

The government has dismissed the concerns.

“Is the minister [Collins] aware that [US firm] “BlackSky… has a contract to supply radio frequency imagery and analysis to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. “If so, will this ban further launches from New Zealand and if not, why not?” the Greens asked this month.

Collins replied: “Yes, I am aware of that. The national interest in applications for payload authorizations … will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

In response to another similar question, Collins said: “The presence or absence of a particular foreign country’s military equipment in a third country has nothing to do with New Zealand’s domestic regulatory process for space launches.”

These questions are likely to be asked more frequently as New Zealand welcomes a new Pentagon strategy to make greater use of commercial space companies, particularly for rapidly launching small satellites to build a network in low Earth orbit.

Missile launches from Mahia used dual-use military-civilian technology. A US company that sells satellite images to the US and Ukrainian governments to monitor the Ukraine war sent a payload in August.

The US’s “commercial expansion strategy” comes with new, looser export controls on sharing space technology with allies.

Last week’s announcement follows five years of complaints from U.S. industry that the strict International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) was stopping space exports.

The changes reclassified many space technologies as commercial goods rather than weapons and removed commercial satellites from the U.S. munitions list.

Collins told RNZ the government welcomed “all efforts to reduce barriers to space cooperation with the US”.

Australia and Britain have a head start on sharing space technology under the Aukus military pact.

Military information sharing is also progressing, with the NGA establishing a joint center with the Pentagon’s Space Force in August to give military combat commands faster access to commercial satellite imagery for purposes such as tracking targets.

New Zealand has recently taken two steps to assist the US Space Force with satellite tracking: last year it set up a US-funded NZDF hub in Auckland and last month took part in Operation Olympic Defender.

But New Zealand isn’t part of another new space initiative – eight spaceports in six countries have just signed a “first-of-its-kind” agreement to work together and set standards in the growing space industry.

Space Center Australia called it a “significant step forward in the development of global spaceflight operations.”

It has both commercial and military aspects and would “provide a platform for the sector to engage significantly with government regulatory, defense and security agencies as space becomes an increasingly important item on the strategic agenda of global political leaders.” Space Center Australian Chairman Scott Morrison said.

New Zealand has one of the busiest commercial spaceports in the world at Mahia, but it is exclusively for the use of the Rocket Lab.

Rocket Lab’s share price on the US Nasdaq has almost doubled in a year.

Tāwhaki is the government’s joint venture with iwi to deliver space launches. While Collins said the government is committed and “excited” about its role in aerospace, this is believed to be the first time it has ruled out vertical launches there.

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