On 09-11 July, the Washington Summit 2024 will be held in Washington, DC, in the United States. The summit will be attended by the heads of state of 32 NATO member nations, partner nations, as well as leaders from the European Union. One of the NATO priorities for the summit will be space.
In 2019, NATO allies adopted a space policy, officially adding space as a fifth domain within NATO alongside air, land, maritime, and cyberspace. This decision was the result of the growing importance that space holds for security and prosperity.
Space is critical to the Alliance in the following areas:
- Positioning, navigation and timing, which enables precision strikes, tracking of forces or search and rescue missions.
- Early warning, which helps to ensure force protection and provides vital information on missile launches.
- Environmental monitoring, which enables meteorological forecasting and mission planning.
- Secure satellite communications, which are essential for missions to enable consultation, command and control.
- Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, which are critical for situational awareness, planning and decision making.
NATO Allied Command Transformation also recognizes the importance of information gathered and delivered by satellites in support of operations and missions, collective defence, crisis response, and counter-terrorism. As space becomes an increasingly crowded and competitive frontier, there is increasing awareness that satellites are vulnerable to interference. Several countries, to include Russia and China, are developing and testing capabilities to disrupt and counter space technologies.
The importance of space has increased tremendously in the international arena, impacting states’ national power and security policies. As a military alliance, NATO must prioritize the security of its members and recognize the significance of space in achieving that goal.
Lt. Col. Emma Palombi
“NATO’s Role in Space: How and Why NATO Member States Should Expand Their Purpose and Capabilities in Space”
In October 2020, NATO established its Space Centre at Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany. Among other initiatives, this was followed in 2023 by the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space initiative – commonly called APSS.
The Washington Summit 2024 is an opportunity for NATO Allied Command Transformation to advance its space domain, discussing its advancements, identifying points of collaboration and setting short, medium, and long-term goals.