Defense representatives from NATO’s 30 member states are slated to review a proposal that seeks to construct a centralized coordination point for an allied space surveillance center prior to a virtual meeting on Thursday.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg revealed early this week that Ramstein Air Base in Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate will likely be the location of the intergovernmental military alliance’s space center, according to the German Press Agency (DPA) and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Toulouse, France, and Kalkar, in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia – the municipality which is home to the Joint Air Power Competence Center – were reportedly discussed as potential locations.
Stoltenberg believes an official announcement will occur by October 22.
NATO countries account for around half of the more than 2,000 satellites in orbit.
The forthcoming construction will be carried out in affiliation with NATO’s Allied Air Command and serve as a major milestone for the alliance following the 2019 adoption of its “space policy.”
“The information gathered and delivered through space-based satellites is critical for NATO activities, operations and missions, including collective defence, crisis response, counter-terrorism and disaster relief,” the NATO website details.
The alliance also pledges to “remain fully in line with international law.”
NATO’s space-related efforts come shortly after the December 2019 founding of the US Space Force (USSF) under US President Donald Trump. Moscow and Beijing have decried Washington’s aggressive approach to the great beyond, and many view the service’s cretion as a deliberate misinterpretation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
Presentation of the Space Force flag at the Oval Office, May 17, 2020.
However, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. James H. Anderson claimed in February that the US is simply building a defense and responding to the sophisticated on-orbit capabilities of Russia and China.
Anderson argued in the news release that the USSF will be rooted in “transforming its space enterprise, fielding resilient architectures, developing space warfighting expertise and working closely with allies in combined operations.”
“When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” Trump said in the White House memo.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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