NATO To Confront Russia In Arctic From Space
- 18.10.2024, 14:56
The plan has been released.
NATO has released a plan to create a military satellite communications network for the Arctic. Western countries have begun to prepare for a confrontation in the northern regions with Russia and even China.
As part of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, 13 members of the alliance agreed to implement the Northlink initiative to create space communications systems in the Arctic using existing commercial satellites, Politico reports. The plan envisages “using the services of satellite constellations” to create a reliable “international communications network for the Arctic,” NATO said.
The alliance does not control its own satellites. But in 2018, it called space the fifth theater of military operations, and the following year a special space command center was opened at the American Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
The Russian Armed Forces have stepped up their activities in the Arctic region. In response, the US has begun preparing for a possible military conflict with it and China, which includes the Arctic in what it calls the “new strategic frontier,” along with cyberspace, the high seas, and outer space. In July, the Pentagon warned in an updated Arctic strategy that Russia was engaging in “destabilizing” actions in the High North against the US, Canada, and their allies, including attempts to jam Global Positioning System (GPS) signals and “military aircraft flights that are conducted in an unprofessional manner and in violation of international law and customs.” The Pentagon also pointed to increased naval cooperation in the region between Moscow and Beijing. NATO members Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Norway, and the US have Arctic territories, as do recent NATO members Sweden and Finland. Those countries, plus France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, have signed an agreement to develop Northlink.