NATO’s Space Operations Command targets China and Russia

In response to alleged Chinese and Russian expansion and threats, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is forecasting the creation of a Space Operations Command (SOCOM). Located on a U.S. military base in Germany, the new Space Operations Command will be a central interface to support NATO missions with communications and satellite imagery, as well as a clearinghouse for information on potential threats to satellites.

To protect against the Russian and Chinese threats, NATO will have a Space Operations Command, AFP reported today.

NATO will establish a Space Operations Command at the Ramstein air base in Germany to counter the growing threat from China and Russia, according to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg today. Ramstein is not only a U.S. air base, but also home to NATO’s Allied Air Command.

Space is critical for our communications, navigation, cell phones, military communications and data transmission on Earth, and many of the Earth’s activities on land and at sea depend on space capabilities, especially satellites,” Stoltenberg said after the first day’s agenda for the two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers. According to Stoltenberg, “We must therefore make sure that we have safe and reliable systems in space. That’s why we are also concerned about a situation where China and Russia, for example, are now developing the capability to mask and destroy satellites.”

NATO announced last year that space is the new “area of operations. 2016 will see the addition of a fourth theater of operations (theater 4) to NATO’s land, sea and air network, followed by a fifth theater of operations (theater 5) in space. The new Space Command will be a central interface to support NATO missions with communications and satellite imagery, as well as a clearinghouse for information on potential threats to satellites.

According to AFP, Stoltenberg stressed yesterday that NATO’s goal is not to “militarize space,” although NATO member states such as the United States and France have established their own space forces.