GAO Finds Intelligence Agency Classification Barriers Impeding Five Eyes Space Cooperation at Vandenberg Working Group

U.S. and other Five Eyes personnel gathered at Vandenberg Space Force Base in late June for the 2026 Space Tactics Analysis Team Working Group, studying adversary tactics and building a shared coalition response playbook, the Space Force said in a press release 1. A July 2025 GAO report found classification and foreign-disclosure processes continue to impede combined space operations, with intelligence agencies sometimes requiring extra approval before U.S. Space Command could pass already-releasable information to allied space operations centers 2. Canadian and Japanese officials told GAO that overlapping DOD organizational responsibilities make it difficult to identify the correct point of contact, and in one instance the Space Force conducted an activity with a European partner without notifying U.S. European Command 2. GAO made three recommendations: set integration milestones under the International Space Cooperation Strategy, address Space Force staffing shortfalls in security cooperation, planning and foreign-disclosure roles, and clarify security cooperation responsibilities department-wide. DOD concurred with the first two, targeting completion by September and December 2026 respectively, but rejected the roles-clarification recommendation, arguing existing DOD Directive 5132.03 already suffices. GAO disputes that rejection as of June 2026 234.