17 NATO nations, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania. Sweden, Turkey, and the US, have signed onto a NATO program called Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) which is an effort to “improve the collection, dissemination and distribution of the reams of space situational awareness data gathered by national and commercial space systems.”

Nations can participate either by developing data analysis tools and distribution systems (Finland and Sweden), developing and launching new systems (Luxembourg, Belgium), providing access to data from existing space systems (Canada, Germany, US), or providing funds (all others) which will be used to develop the needed analysis and distribution systems and secure contracts with commercial providers.

NATO hopes to have this system online in 2026.

Cyber Implications/vulnerabilities

There are potential cyber vulnerabilities inherent in any multi-national intelligence sharing service. Not only would a multinational network have multiple nodes for an adversary to attack but different participating nations may have different ideas of what cybersecurity means. The US and France, for example, are considered fairly competent with regards to cybersecurity while other participating nations such as Greece and Turkey are not meaning that the poor cybersecurity practices of one nation could jeopardize the systems of all participating nations. NATO may be able to avoid such risks if it adopts, implements, and aggressively enforces compliance of a Cybersecurity Standard to ensure that every nation participating in the APSS has at least a known and reasonable minimum level of cybersecurity practices. The consequences of an adversary gaining access to all participating nations space systems simultaneously would be too great for NATO not to put cybersecurity at the forefront of the APSS program.

Reference:

Machi, Vivienne (2024), NATO Puts Space Situational Awareness in the Spotlight, Aviation Week Space and Technology, July 29-August 11 2024 edition, Informa Publishing, New York, New York.