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Issue 67

07 Flash Archive · Members Only

NATO Begins Allied Persistent Surveillance from Space

16 Feb 2023: A group of 17 European nations, plus the US and Canada announced a plan to share intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance data from satellites — spurred by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine that highlighted the value of space-based remote sensing for warfighting.. - Under a letter of intent, the nations will launch the Al…

Author Minhas Published February 26, 2023

16 Feb 2023: A group of 17 European nations, plus the US and Canada announced a plan to share

intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance data from satellites — spurred by the ongoing

conflict in Ukraine that highlighted the value of space-based remote sensing for warfighting..

– Under a letter of intent, the nations will launch the Allied Persistent Surveillance from Space Initiative (APSS) to explore “the potential for sharing data from national surveillance satellites; processing, exploitation, and dissemination of data from within national capabilities; and funding to purchase data from commercial companies,” according to a UK Ministry of Defence press release. – The letter was signed by Britain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Sweden and the US. All are NATO members, with the exception of Sweden, which has asked to join. – APSS will be ‘sensor-agnostic and solution-agnostic”; it will be open to all existing – and future – space assets, regardless of their scope, technologies and specificities. It will bring together both government-owned and commercial space assets. – Ukraine’s successful use of remote sensing satellite data, primarily but not exclusively provided to Kyiv via the US commercial providers at the urging of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, to assist its military in both keeping tabs on its own dispersed forces and in targeting Russian forces has resonated with other nations around world. In fact, NATO has been considering whether it should begin buying commercial remote sensing data collectively. – From the NATO announcement: At NATO, space plays an important role in the operational military domain to navigate and track forces, detect missile launches, but also to ensure effective command and control and communications. To continue to ensure effective deterrence and defense while retaining its technological edge, the Alliance needs to leverage on both national and commercial technologies and assets in the space domain. -Primary APSS Objectives are: 1) achieve ‘persistent surveillance’, that is allowing NATO to collect data on any location at any given time; 2) increase space-based intelligence sharing across the Alliance, leading to a more comprehensive cross-domain intelligence picture necessary to inform political-decision making and military operations; and 3) improve NATO’s overall intelligence through a more effective use of both government-owned and commercial space-based assets, technologies and data -The new persistent space alliance is expected to start operating in 2025. -The NATO Space Centre began operations from Germany in early-2021. Here's a video showing the facilities and featuring interviews with several allied officers.

NATO Begins Allied Persistent Surveillance from Space

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