NATO Allies Begin Multinational Military Satellite Constellation Project

NATO allies announced a project to develop a multinational satellite constellation called HALO to connect nationally owned military satellites for faster communications, intelligence gathering and missile tracking. Radmila Šekerinska, the NATO deputy secretary-general, said eight allies are launching the effort at the alliance summit in Ankara.

The countries involved are Denmark, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey.

HALO, which stands for Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space, will integrate sovereign satellites into a networked system. Šekerinska noted that independent national constellations remain vulnerable to cyberattacks, jamming or physical destruction and cannot relay large volumes of data quickly enough.

"So this new model will be particularly helpful for high-speed communications, intelligence and missile tracking, overcoming the cost, the time and coverage limitations of single-nation satellite fleets," she said.

At the same NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum, Canada joined the STARLIFT initiative as its 15th member. The program seeks to create a network of launch capabilities allowing allies to place assets in orbit on short notice from spaceports across the alliance.

Spain became the 19th nation in the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space initiative and will contribute imagery from its Atlantic Constellation satellites to increase coastal monitoring.

Turkey separately announced plans to build two additional high-resolution satellites to strengthen regional space capabilities.