NATO Prepares For Space Warfare By Militarizing Low Earth Orbit

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is looking to classify space as a domain for warfare in an attempt to deter China’s growing military power. If NATO’s proposal succeeds, the international alliance could move forward with the development and use of space weapons.

According to NATO diplomats, the international organization is preparing to release an agreement that will officially declare space as a war domain. This means that aside from land, air and sea, space could also be used for military operations during times of war.

The decision regarding NATO’s agreement is expected to be finalized during the upcoming leaders’ summit in London on Dec. 3 to 4, Reuters reported. Before the summit, NATO defense ministers will first come up with a general space policy in an upcoming meeting in Brussels sometime next week.

Sources close to NATO said that the organization’s decision to move forward with the agreement is an attempt to convince U.S. President Donald Trump that the international alliance is still an effective force in deterring rising global threats, such as China’s growing military power.

Although NATO’s partner countries currently own 65% of the satellites in space, China is reportedly preparing to launch a massive project that involves releasing constellations of satellites in low Earth orbit.

Some of these satellites will provide commercial services like high-speed internet while others would be controlled by the Chinese military. These militarized satellites can be used to coordinate ground forces and to track approaching missiles.

For NATO, officially declaring space as a war domain would allow the alliance to move in the same direction. It could eventually lead to the launch of space weapons that are capable of shooting down enemy satellites or missiles.

According to Jamie Shea, a former NATO official, being able to control space warfare will be a vital position for any country or organization since it can almost dictate the outcome of armed conflicts.

“You can have warfare exclusively in space, but whoever controls space also controls what happens on land, on the sea and in the air,” he said according to Reuters. “If you don’t control space, you don’t control the other domains either.”