Via Satellite
• Tereza Pultarova
As Russia begins deploying its RASSVET low Earth orbit constellation, defense experts warn that Europe remains too dependent on the United States for space security. The deployment highlights a strategic gap as Europe confronts growing pressure to strengthen its own space capabilities.
Space Defense & Militarization
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A commentary on the first UK Space Power event, held in mid-September, describes a marked elevation in discussions of space defense. The observation points to space security becoming a more prominent part of Europe’s defense agenda.
As Russia begins deploying its RASSVET low Earth orbit constellation, defense experts warn that Europe remains too dependent on the United States for space security. The deployment highlights a strategic gap as Europe confronts growing pressure to strengthen its own space capabilities.
Key stakeholders in Germany’s space industry are weighing in on the country’s efforts to strengthen space capabilities in support of protecting its eastern flank. The discussion puts Germany’s space-defense ambitions and the industry’s role in those efforts in focus.
High activity
Rheinmetall ICEYE has begun production in Neuss for Germany’s dedicated SPOCK 1 radar-imaging satellites. Elsewhere, Lithuania has received its first Switchblade 600 loitering munitions, the Pentagon plans a more complex urban counter-drone exercise, and DroneShield won a U.S. IDIQ contract worth up to $500 million over three years; Ukraine reported a large overnight drone attack on Russia.
Airbus Defence and Space and CenSec, a Danish business cluster representing companies and researchers in defense, space and security, have signed a partnership agreement to expand cooperation and supply-chain ties. The available reports do not specify the agreement’s projects, investment or timetable.
European discussions frame space capabilities as essential to independent security decisions, while proposals for a European Space Shield expose debate over who should shape the effort. In parallel, US policy emphasizes infrastructure and commercial activity, and space-governance advocates argue that debris mitigation must evolve toward broader orbital sustainability.
HawkEye 360 says it demonstrated that its commercial radio-frequency monitoring satellites can be retasked to detect and identify transmissions from other spacecraft. The experiment could give the U.S. Space Force another means of assessing satellite activity in orbit, extending the use of commercial sensing systems to space-domain awareness.
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