America is asking more from its military allies and partners to prepare for future space wars and New Zealand is on board.

The new US Space Force strategy for international partnership calls for partners to engage in missions and wargaming, and joint planning "across requirements, budgets, programming and execution".

However, the NZ Defence Force says it is not being asked to sign up to anything in particular.

Such initiatives were good to allow "like-minded nations" to work together to ensure "space remains accessible to all nations", it told RNZ.

"The partnership strategy is a United States-led document to outline how nations can work together to achieve common goals, but does not in and of itself oblige New Zealand to sign up to any specific initiative."

Yet the strategy appears to contradict this: It was about setting up an "ends, ways and means framework to integrate Allies and partners in Force Design, Force Development, Force Generation and Force Employment", it said.

The overarching aim was to "integrate" allies to be "combat multipliers".

"The high cost of space systems, finite resources in budgets, personnel and exquisite technology requirements drive us to collaborate with Allies, partners, commercial and civil space.

"The deterrent effect of bilateral and multilateral relationships should not be underestimated, either through the creation of complex military problems for our potential adversaries, or through advocacy and legitimacy in shaping international rules, norms and behaviors within the domain.

"'Partnering to Win' is not optional, it is essential."

Until recently, the US has been protective of its military space technologies, but with the advent of Space Force in 2019, and under AUKUS Pillar 2 more recently, it has been removing barriers to sharing this and other advanced military tech, with a key aim of getting more help and co-production from partners.

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New Zealand is a partner, not ally, of the US; in space, it has an unusual technology safeguarding agreement most other countries do not have, that lets US tech come here, but blocks some other countries, like Russia, from working on space activities here.

When asked what, if any, interaction or input New Zealand had to the new space partnership strategy, and with what aim and what obligations, Defence and Space Minister Judith Collins referred all the questions to the NZDF's new space squadron.

However, she told the US's largest space symposium audience in Colorado in April that "the space partnership between our two countries stands as one of the most important in our bilateral relationship", according to speech notes released under the Official Information Act.

Briefings for her trip said "space activities, operations and capabilities are increasingly important for New Zealand Defence".

"Our space-related cooperation with the US and our other key security partners is critical for us."

The Pentagon has repeatedly expressed deep worries that China is getting ahead in the space arms race, but only belatedly made leveraging its allies one of its very top priorities.

The US Space Force recently laid out a new pitch to develop six types of weapons for use in space.

Now, its new international strategy envisages US partners working together on this.

They would share in missions together, create new technology and do wargaming together.

The other countries' space capabilities would be factored in for the first time in America's so-called Future Years Defense Programme (FYDP), a five-year plan for assessing the allocating military resources - a plan "closely held within DoD [US department of defence, or Pentagon]".

The Pentagon and US intelligence services would collaborate in the international strategy, it said.

"The risk calculus for our potential adversaries increases when they see allies and partners building and operating integrated space architectures." said Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, who is leading the initiative.

"It's about harnessing the power of multiple nations."

Collins stressed in Colorado in April, and in previous interactions with US Space Force, New Zealand's unique geographical position and clear skies for space launches.

In April's speech, she referred to a couple of joint civilian space operations, such as with Nasa, but not military ones.

However, she told the local defence industry at a closed-door event in May about growing opportunities to contribute to space technology supply through the then-newly released defence capabilty plan.

"Defence and Space overlap more now than ever before," Collins said, according to speech notes released under the OIA.

"Having a strong space sector goes hand in hand with having a strong Defence Force."

Yet a government strategy about doubling the size of the space and aerospace industry by 2030 said very little about the defence and military side.

The US Space Force wants partners to engage in missions and wargaming. Photo: Staff Sgt James Richardson Jr, Public domain

The US's new international strategy's slogan is "Partner to Win".

At the strategy launch, Space Force cited examples of existing partnership, including two where New Zealand is deeply engaged: In the military satellite web known as the Wideband Global Satcom; and in the space monitoring ground system called Joint Commercial Operations, where Auckland hosts one of eight hubs that span the globe for the Pentagon and US space spy agency, the NRO.

New Zealand also recently joined the peak US-led space security body, Operation Olympic Defender, that aims to "integrate" member nations' space aims and operations.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed New Zealand's "growing space relationship" with Trump's Secretary of State in March, "outlining New Zealand's geographic importance as a space partner to the US", according to an OIA release about Collins' US trip.

NZDF has no space assets of its own in orbit, and only a ground station or two; its documents say its science section "extensively leverages use of ... external partner expertise and opportunities".

US Space Force is currently engaged in its biggest ever exercise, Resolute Space 2025. NZDF has not said if it is taking part.

An NZDF liaison officer joined Space Force in Colorado in March.

"NZDF Space Operations is engaging with space partner nations and domestic organisations to explore options for improved integration; liaison opportunities; ground-based space infrastructure; and enhanced access to space effects," a briefing to Collins said.

The moves aligning this country with the US push to integrate partners extend beyond space.

The two countries launched a US-NZ 'Dialogue on Critical and Emerging Technologies' 11 months ago, and followed that up with a 'Strategic and Defence Trade Dialogue' established in December.

Around the same time, New Zealand joined a regional framework to extend the US military industrial base in the Indo-Pacific, aimed to help Washington accelerate weapons production and improve maintenance.

The framework (called PIPIR) was praised by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in May, when he announced its first projects were to set shared standards for drones and to set up repair facilities in Australia for the radar systems of sub-spotting P8 planes. NZ has P8s.

"These outcomes directly support President Trump's Peace through Strength agenda," said a Pentagon report.

"They also help deliver on Secretary Hegseth's commitment to rebuild the military and re-establish deterrence by reviving the United States' defense industrial base to rapidly provide and enhance the capabilities of the US, and its allies and partners."