NATO pushes Arctic space plan to counter Putin

BRUSSELS — The NATO alliance launched plans to develop a military-grade satellite communications network on Thursday for the Arctic, aimed at bolstering defense against a belligerent Russia in the north.
On the sidelines of a meeting of NATO’s defense ministers in Brussels, a bloc of 13 countries agreed to push forward the Northlink initiative to build out space-based communication systems across the Arctic using existing commercial satellites.
The plan involves “leveraging services from communication satellite constellations” to offer up a reliable “multinational communications network for the Arctic,” NATO said.
NATO doesn’t operate its own satellites but after space was declared the alliance’s fifth theater of conflict in 2018, a dedicated space command center was opened at Germany’s Ramstein air base the following year.
Russia, which also borders the Arctic, has ramped up its operations in the region of late with warnings of jamming attacks on satellites in the area.
Denmark, Canada, Iceland, Norway and the United States all control Arctic territory and are NATO member countries, along with Sweden and Finland which recently signed up to the alliance
All of those are onboard with a letter of intent on Northlink, along with France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Separately, some 14 NATO member states agreed to launch the so-called Starlift initiative to work on securing rocket launch capacity on Thursday. That alliance includes Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the U.K. and the U.S.