Space Security: Threats, Capabilities and Europe's Path Forward

European governments have woken up to the strategic importance of outer space as a military domain.

Many strategic enablers based in space, these include satellite communications, positioning navigation and timing, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, space-based missile early warning, and so on.

NATO already declared space as an operational domain in 2019, while the US now regards it as a war-fighting domain.

And since 2021, NATO has recognized that attacks to, from, or within space present a clear security challenge to the alliance, and could even lead to the invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

At the same time, the US, Russia, China, and others have already developed, tested, and in some cases used counter-space capabilities to target satellites.

So this is on the military side of things.

At the same time, the space economy is also growing.

Around 15,000 satellites are now in orbit, and most of those are commercial.

Concurrently, civilian dependence on space is also deepening.

Many satellites provide services underpinning critical civilian infrastructure such as communications, navigation, weather and climate monitoring, financial transactions, disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance.

So in this congested and contested space environment, satellites are at risk from accidental collisions, space debris and natural hazards, and also increasingly from deliberate hostile acts.

And it's therefore become critical from a military, commercial, and civilian standpoint to ensure freedom of action in, through, and from space, and to be able to protect these space assets.

European governments have woken up to the strategic importance of outer space as a military domain.

Many strategic enablers based in space, these include satellite communications, positioning navigation and timing, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, space-based missile early warning, and so on.

NATO already declared space as an operational domain in 2019, while the US now regards it as a war-fighting domain.

And since 2021, NATO has recognized that attacks to, from, or within space present a clear security challenge to the alliance, and could even lead to the invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

At the same time, the US, Russia, China, and others have already developed, tested, and in some cases used counter-space capabilities to target satellites.

So this is on the military side of things.

At the same time, the space economy is also growing.

Around 15,000 satellites are now in orbit, and most of those are commercial.

Concurrently, civilian dependence on space is also deepening.

Many satellites provide services underpinning critical civilian infrastructure such as communications, navigation, weather and climate monitoring, financial transactions, disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance.

So in this congested and contested space environment, satellites are at risk from accidental collisions, space debris and natural hazards, and also increasingly from deliberate hostile acts.

And it's therefore become critical from a military, commercial, and civilian standpoint to ensure freedom of action in, through, and from space, and to be able to protect these space assets.