In the middle of March, an American plane went down when a Russian fighter was harassing it. The exact same cat and mouse game is going on right now in space as well: the Russian satellite Kosmos-2558 is overshadowing the American spy satellite USA-326, which was launched into orbit a year ago.
The Russian satellite sent in August from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, right near the Finnish border, has settled into almost the same orbit as the American satellite. They are only about 35 kilometers apart, which is very little on the scale of space.
Similar satellite interception has happened before, also by the United States and China. However, this case is special because Kosmos-2558 is likely to be a satellite destroyer.
Russia has tested a similar satellite in 2017 and 2019. The satellite can release a small satellite into space, which can travel to another satellite and damage it. Or just take a closer look at it.
It’s only a matter of time before warfare moves into space.
Satellites support operations on Earth
Among the European countries, the most important player in space is France, whose air and space forces organized an international space war exercise at the beginning of March. In this AsterX exercise held in Toulouse, there were also observers from Finland.
– Modern warfare is not possible without help from space, says the major who led the exercise Guillaume Bourdeloux.
He calls space the fifth kind of weapon that serves all the others. The traditional types of weapons are land, sea and air forces, and cyber warfare has also emerged alongside them in recent decades.
Bourdeloux proudly displays his celestial fleet, i.e. 14 French satellites under the command of the Space Command. In addition, there are satellites shared with Germany and Italy, as well as commercial satellites, the data sent by which is also available for defense use.
France also has radar detection systems that can track satellites in space.
In total, there are three hundred military satellites orbiting the Earth that transmit information, carry out reconnaissance, help with navigation and report the weather. Most of them are American, Russian and Chinese.
In addition, many commercial and national civilian satellites also support defense. When the Starlink satellites, which have become famous in Ukraine and are used for information transmission, are included, there are several thousand of these so-called dual-purpose satellites.
Transmitting information via satellites is convenient because you can be connected anywhere on the globe. In addition to messages, satellites transfer data so conveniently and quickly that unmanned aerial vehicles can be controlled remotely from thousands of kilometers away.
For example, the Reaper drone that the Russians shot down over the Black Sea last week was flown from Germany via a satellite link.
In addition to traditional spy pictures, satellites can also take radar pictures that show objects on the surface even at night and through clouds. Among other things, troop transfers and station constructions are clearly visible. Satellites can also be used for signal intelligence, i.e. to locate, for example, radar stations that send out radio pulses.
With the help of navigation satellite systems, positioning and navigation are convenient. GPS was originally developed for use by soldiers before the service was also opened to civilians. With the exception of the European Galileo system, these satellites are still officially military, although Galileo also has a separate protected official service that the military can also use.
Even individual bombs and missiles find their way to their targets with the help of satellite navigation.
More investment in space activities
The AsterX exercise was organized last year in Toulouse at the Cite de l’Espace space science center. This year, the place was closer to the real action, at CNES, France’s national space research center. Its neighbor in the southwest of Toulouse will be a new, modern building for the French Space Staff, which now operates in a decentralized manner. Construction works will start at the end of the year.
The staff established in 2019 has approximately 350 employees, and this year 75 more will be hired.
– When the new building is completed in 2025, there should be 500 people working there, said the head of the staff, General Philippe Adam while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of AsterX.
France clearly invests in space also militarily. This is also evidenced by the ongoing satellite named Yoda, which is scheduled to be sent into space in 2024.
The satellite, named after the little Jedi knight from the Star Wars movie, tests what Adam calls space pioneering: tracking the enemy, observing their actions and, if necessary, taking action.
– Our task is also to protect our resources in space, that is, if necessary, to prevent devices that threaten our satellites from functioning, says Adam.
Yoda is accompanied by two small satellites, whose precise essence no one tells anything about. As the deaf hide of USA-326 and Kosmos-2558 shows, play may soon turn into hostile action.
– So far, we are not at the level of military action, but it is a real threat, Bourdeloux says seriously.
The Russian satellite is a concrete proof of that.
– I have reservations about the so-called kinetic activity, because it creates space junk. No one has an interest in giving birth to more of it – or I don’t know about others, but at least that is not France’s intention.
Kinetic action means physical impact, i.e. shooting or hitting a satellite with another.
Since it can turn out to be more of a nuisance, there are other, less explosive options in the selection of methods. The satellites can dazzle, black out and interfere with each other, or even engage with robotic arms. Satellites wrestling with each other is a strange, but completely realistic image.
The AsterX exercise featured 23 different imagined but possible events. There were external causes, such as satellite interference due to solar storms, as well as enemy activity, for example deliberate jamming of satellites.
There are also space soldiers in Finland
Satellites offer a great deal of help to a large but sparsely populated country like Finland. The defense forces therefore also have expertise in this field, and Finns were also involved in the AsterX exercise.
– We were involved with observer status, that is, we did not participate directly in the training activities, says the deputy department head, lieutenant colonel Tuukka Elonheimo. He directs the Air Force Space Situational Image project at the Air Force Headquarters in the planning department.
Elonheimo was not in Toulouse himself, but has received reports from those who were there. The strategy and doctrines of France’s space operations were presented to Finns.
– Corresponding observer departments had been invited from more than twenty countries. They were able to watch the activities in the space operations center, where the people participating in the exercise talked about their work tasks, work tools and responsibilities.
Commercial space and defense companies that support the French Space Command also participated in the exercise. The companies presented their services and expertise.
– The Finnish Defense Forces, like almost all other military actors, use space technology primarily as a support element for other combat environments, explains Elonheimo.
According to him, a technological breakthrough is taking place, as launches into space become more and more affordable and the sensor technology of satellites is constantly developing. Capable satellites are getting smaller and cheaper, a good example of which are the new kind of radar satellites of the Finnish company Iceye. Until some time ago, similar satellites would have been much larger and more expensive.
Iceye is also a good example of cooperation between civilian and military operations, because the technology developed by the company for civilian use is currently being used in the conflict in Ukraine. The Iceye satellite provides intelligence information to the Ukrainian army.
According to Elonheimo, the possibility of cooperation that helps smaller states to develop space activities is also important in the future.
Space is definitely a part of Finnish defense now and in the future.