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Chinese activities in space to destabilise European assets amount to a “dogfight”, Germany’s State Secretary for Defence said on Wednesday, warning of a “new reality” that Europe needs to urgently prepare for.
“Russia, also China, are developing, they are testing, and in some cases already employing counterspace capabilities,” Jens Plötner warned during a keynote speech at the European Space Conference in Brussels. “These are designed to deny, degrade, disrupt, deceive or destroy space systems.”
“European space assets, including German ones, are regularly subject to deliberate interference already today. We observe this on an almost daily basis. Chinese satellites, for instance, are conducting highly agile and complex manoeuvres in orbit, activities that can fairly be described as a dogfight in space.”
The EU is scrambling to enhance its defence posture before the turn of the decade in order to deter a possible Russian attack with space now seen as key to these efforts, notably when it comes to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as well as fast and secure communication.
Strategic enablers, which include space assets, have been designated a priority area for investments by the European Commission, which is urging member states to coordinate their rearmament efforts to avoid overlap and plug critical capability gaps faster.
Plötner, whose country has announced a €500 billion rearmament plan with €35 billion to be spent on military space capabilities alone before 2030, warned that Europe’s adversaries know all too well that space-based defence is now decisive in conflict and therefore “a critical vulnerability”.
“We must therefore assume that attacks on our space infrastructure would occur at a very early stage of any future conflict and that elements of such an attack could already be taking place today as we speak as part of a hybrid campaign,” he said.
“Whether we like it or not, we need to face this new reality and we need be prepared.”
Plötner called on EU member states to pool resources and to collaborate with trusted partners, in which he included the United States, as well as through the NATO military alliance.
“All EU members have a growing demand for satellite imagery, yet only a few operate the respective systems. By networking national and commercial assets into a virtual constellation, we can meet our collective security needs far more efficiently,” he said, citing a joint programme with France, Finland, Sweden, and Spain to build a global sensor network for space situational awareness.
Other such efforts are also already underway. The European Commission for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, announced on Tuesday that all 27 EU member states now have access to secure and encrypted satellite communication through the pooling of eight satellites owned by five different countries.
Plötner’s comments came just a day after France’s Minister for Space urged Europe to implement a “100% European preference” for space defence assets, arguing that Europe’s “first strong ally is now very unpredictable”.
The French government announced in November that Russia had deployed a nuclear-armed anti-satellite system into orbit as part of a programme named Sputnik S.