The US Defense News website recently published an article titled "Sweden angles to fill a void in NATO's space plans", saying that Sweden has been seeking to fill a void in NATO's space defense.
As a new entrant, Sweden, by seeking to fill NATO's space defense void, aims not only to enhance its own defense capabilities but also to gain a bigger say and more strategic weight within the organization. This may turn out to be an important step in NATO's strategic adjustment in the space domain and may exert profound impacts on the current global strategic balance and major-country competition.
Sweden possesses powerful space capabilities
Sweden is an early player in space explorations with strong research capability. As early as in 1972, it formed the National Space Agency and launched several satellites. In May 2018, the Swedish government announced its first national space strategy focused on strengthening international cooperation, especially with the European Space Agency. Following the strategy, it has forged space partnerships with several countries.
Such international space cooperation has picked up speed after Sweden joined NATO in March 2024. In April, it signed the Artemis Accords with the US, which reinforced the two countries' strategic space partnership and enhanced their R&D capability in the space and aerospace industry.
Sweden has stepped up its space technology R&D in the past few years. Data show that since 2019, the Swedish government's investment in this area has maintained an annual growth of over 20%, and the country has fostered its systemic space-related capabilities and services according to the idea of "comprehensive defense and crisis prevention". In January 2023, Sweden, leveraged on its geostrategic position and built the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna. The first satellite launch site on the European continent mainly serves civilian satellites at the moment but is very likely to be used for military launches in the future.
NATO's space defense is defective
Although several NATO members are strong in aerospace, the organization as a whole doesn't have a dedicated space force but has to rely on information support from countries like the US, the UK, and France, which results in insufficient coordination and slow response. With the continual progress in space technology and its widening application for military purposes, NATO has accelerated its space militarization process.
In June 2019, NATO adopted its first overarching space policy. In November of the same year, it recognized space as a new operational domain alongside air, land, sea and cyberspace. In October 2020, it set up the NATO Space Centre at the Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany.
Based on these moves and outcomes, NATO published on its website another "Overarching Space Policy" in January 2022, declaring that the term on collective defense under NATO's Article 5 applies to the space domain, with the execution of relevant actions specified. It stated that the organization would carry out space activities within the limits of international law.
During NATO's Washington Summit in July this year, 17 NATO members, including Sweden, signed an agreement on sharing space intelligence, to which they committed US$ 1 billion, the largest investment the organization has ever made to enhance its space capacities, to support its Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program.
While NATO has achieved a lot in the space domain, it still faces huge challenges in integrating the resources of its members. Key members such as the UK, France and Germany have different priorities in their space buildup, and these differences will strongly affect NATO's judgment and attitude towards its future space capability development.
Sweden will add to the pile of space risks
Confident in its superior capabilities in the space domain, Sweden hopes to narrow the distance between NATO and other major countries in this field, which revealed its ambitions to play a major role in the bloc.
It's worth noting that Sweden is home to some of the best space technology companies in Europe, such as Saab AB and Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), which are highly strong and experienced in such areas as satellite communication and rocket launch. A spokesperson of NASA said they support Sweden's efforts in space defense because that's an important part of NATO's preparation for future challenges.
In the short term, Sweden's efforts to fill NATO's void in space defense will intensify the military cooperation and coordination among NATO members and strengthen the bloc's overall space defense capability. In the long term, however, such enhancement of NATO's space capabilities surely goes against the international consensus on the peaceful utilization of outer space and preventing space militarization. It will stimulate the open, combat-oriented, and weaponized space arms race, court objection from Russia and other out-of-region countries, and prompt them to quicken their steps of space militarization in order to maintain asymmetrical edges against NATO. That will increase the possibility of a space arms race and conflicts and consequently undermine global strategic stability.
Editor's note: Originally published on thepaper.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
