The Daily Populous Saturday September 20th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by inews.co.uk and submitted by theipaper

James Appathurai, the interim head of Nato’s innovative defence body, warned Russia and China are making huge investments in weapons capable of wiping out Western satellites

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Russia and China are investing heavily in new weapons capable of wiping out Western satellites – risking key communications, financial transactions and military defence systems, Nato has warned.

Pointing to an increased focus on the West’s vulnerability in space, the interim head of Nato’s innovative defence body, James Appathurai, warned that Russia and China were “investing quite a lot” in anti-satellite capabilities.

“These have multiple vectors from lasers from space to cyber attacks, to kinetic attacks in space,” he said.

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“So we need robust architectures against jamming, against cyber-attacks, but against also kinetic attacks. And all of these are very real.”

In a series of briefings at the DSEI defence conference in London, European military and aerospace chiefs echoed concerns over the rapid militarisation of space, warning of the vulnerability of undefended Western space assets to cyberattacks, jamming, kinetic strikes, and directed energy weapons.

Former Nato Commander Sir Nicholas Borton emphasised the massive disparity in scale between Western space capabilities and those of hostile nations.

“US right now has over 200 satellites up in orbit. Take that away and the European countries’ Nato, have got less than 50,” he said. “China and Russia between them in the last five years… have launched hundreds of satellites”.

Nato and European military chiefs warn of growing aggression in space (Photo: Nasa/Roscosmos/ Handout via Reuters)

Borton added that there is a “mismatch” in capability, and the UK is currently “woefully behind” its adversaries. He urged the Government to increase its “scale” to compete, pointing to the UK’s £10bn investment in its Space Command over the coming years as a step in the right direction.

But Borton warned that matching adversaries in numbers is only part of the solution.

“We’re dealing not just with China, or not just with Russia, or not just with North Korea. We’re dealing with an axis of aggression who are all operating together, and we need a strategic plan in space and on Earth to deal with all of those actors together,” he said.

Borton added that when nations are looking at building resilience to attacks in space there is “no point” in separating military and civilian assets and urged nations to “insulate the whole thing” from potential attacks.

Modern satellites, first designed to deliver GPS signals across space, have grown in strategic importance in both military and everyday life.

Modern militaries depend on satellites for navigation, surveillance, communications, missile tracking, and the coordination of joint operations while they are also used to capture and send data to help mitigate against extreme weather events, and carry and share vital communications which we depend on daily.

Ukraine’s defence Intelligence Directorate (GUR) recently reported that more than 1,500 Russian targets worth billions of dollars have been destroyed over the past two years thanks to imagery from Ukraine’s radar satellite, while aspects of daily life, including banking, air travel, telecommunications, and even health care are reliant on space-based systems.

But experts warn our defences are not adapting to growing threats, putting these services at immediate risk.

The deployment of weapons of mass destruction or military activities in space is banned by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which was signed by over 100 countries including Russia, China, and the United States. However, growing geopolitical tensions and inventive new methods of hybrid warfare has brought the prospect of attacks in space into view.

China launches the SQX-1 Y10 commercial carrier rocket into space (Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

In recent years, China have developed weapons capable of destroying satellites, and repeatedly demonstrated their muscle by launching anti-sateillite missiles against their own systems in orbit.

In July, Chinese researchers openly proposed methods to disrupt Ukranian military capabilities by wiping out Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite constellation with lasers and sabotage tactics.

A 2018 US intelligence report, conducted by the CIA and FBI, warned that China and Russia were rapidly developing “destructive counterspace weapons” —ranging from jammers and lasers to potentially nuclear-powered devices designed to destroy multiple satellites in a single blast.

The developments have forced Nato to see designated space as a new operational domain, alongside air, land, sea and cyberspace while The European Space Agency recently announced the investment of €1 billion in a new military-grade satellite network.

European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius has been pushing for stronger EU-wide coordination to counter Russian hybrid attacks in space.

“Russia’s hybrid and total war strategy in Europe is clear – from attacks on Ukraine to sabotage in Germany, disruption of Baltic communication lines, and ongoing interference in political processes across the region,” Kubilius said “These actions show that hybrid threats are happening now, and we must respond with higher investments and even stronger technology.”

Dr Marta Wachowicz, head of the Polish Space Agency (Polsa), echoed these concerns, highlighting Europe’s lack of defensive capabilities in space.

“There is real space defence systems… and anti-satellite capabilities, that, of course, in comparison to the US and China, that’s the problem,” she said. “I should underline the sad point that there is a real (EU) dependence on US satellite communication system and that is the gap.”

While Nato members have begun to invest more heavily in space security, officials acknowledge that catching up will require more than just money. Leaders admitted it will demand coordination, shared intelligence, and a unified strategic defence policy.

Wachowicz said collaboration was “absolutely needed” and allied nations needed to be working harder together to defend themselves from space.

“We need to do that as sovereign nations, but in a federated network with our allies,” she said. “And work out how we’re going to share the problem all together so we can keep ourselves safe.”

YairJ on September 20th, 2025 at 14:05 UTC »

Please don't Kesslerize the planet...

theipaper on September 20th, 2025 at 11:54 UTC »

Russia and China are investing heavily in new weapons capable of wiping out Western satellites – risking key communications, financial transactions and military defence systems, Nato has warned.

Pointing to an increased focus on the West’s vulnerability in space, the interim head of Nato’s innovative defence body, James Appathurai, warned that Russia and China were “investing quite a lot” in anti-satellite capabilities.

“These have multiple vectors from lasers from space to cyber attacks, to kinetic attacks in space,” he said.

“So we need robust architectures against jamming, against cyber-attacks, but against also kinetic attacks. And all of these are very real.”

Cyberattacks, jamming, and space lasers

In a series of briefings at the DSEI defence conference in London, European military and aerospace chiefs echoed concerns over the rapid militarisation of space, warning of the vulnerability of undefended Western space assets to cyberattacks, jamming, kinetic strikes, and directed energy weapons.

Former Nato Commander Sir Nicholas Borton emphasised the massive disparity in scale between Western space capabilities and those of hostile nations.

“US right now has over 200 satellites up in orbit. Take that away and the European countries’ Nato, have got less than 50,” he said. “China and Russia between them in the last five years… have launched hundreds of satellites”.

Borton added that there is a “mismatch” in capability, and the UK is currently “woefully behind” its adversaries. He urged the Government to increase its “scale” to compete, pointing to the UK’s £10bn investment in its Space Command over the coming years as a step in the right direction.

But Borton warned that matching adversaries in numbers is only part of the solution.

“We’re dealing not just with China, or not just with Russia, or not just with North Korea. We’re dealing with an axis of aggression who are all operating together, and we need a strategic plan in space and on Earth to deal with all of those actors together,” he said.

Borton added that when nations are looking at building resilience to attacks in space there is “no point” in separating military and civilian assets and urged nations to “insulate the whole thing” from potential attacks.

Satellites are a critical infrastructure

Modern satellites, first designed to deliver GPS signals across space, have grown in strategic importance in both military and everyday life.

Modern militaries depend on satellites for navigation, surveillance, communications, missile tracking, and the coordination of joint operations while they are also used to capture and send data to help mitigate against extreme weather events, and carry and share vital communications which we depend on daily.