{"id":42630,"date":"2025-09-28T08:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/42630\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T08:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:53:07","slug":"german-military-to-invest-41b-in-space-capabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/42630\/","title":{"rendered":"German military to invest $41B in space capabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius today announced<\/a> that Berlin will invest \u20ac35 billion ($41 billion) over the next five years on space security, including improved cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201c[W]e are building structures within the Bundeswehr to enable us to effectively defend and deter in space in the medium and long term,\u201d he told the Federation of German Industries\u2019 annual Space Congress in Berlin, according to an online translation of an MoD press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe plan to acquire new satellite constellations \u2014 for early warning, reconnaissance, and communications. We will also utilize dual-use systems, meaning technologies that can be deployed for both civilian and military purposes,\u201d Pistorius added.<\/p>\n

That plan, according to the release, includes spending on:<\/p>\n

hardening systems against disruptions and attacks<\/p>\n

improved situational awareness through radars, telescopes and the future use of sentinel satellites<\/p>\n

the creation of redundancies through several networked satellite constellations<\/p>\n

secured, also on-demand available, transport capacities into space<\/p>\n

a dedicated military satellite operations center in the Bundeswehr Space Command<\/p>\n

Pistorius specifically called out the need for improved cybersecurity for \u201call space systems\u201d \u2014 and back in May<\/a> Maj. Gen. Michael Traut, commander of\u00a0German<\/a>\u00a0Space Command, said \u201cself-protection measures [or] built-in self-protection\u201d for satellites was on his \u201cChristmas list.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the motivating factor, Pistorius cited increasing threats to Western space assets from Russia and China as the impetus for the new spending plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSatellite networks today are an Achilles\u2019 heel of modern societies. Whoever attacks them paralyzes entire nations,\u201d Pistorius said.<\/p>\n

For example, he noted the February 2023<\/a> Russian cyberattack on Viasat\u2019s communication satellite network in the run up to the invasion of Ukraine that also shut down German wind turbines, according to a report<\/a> in Defense News. <\/p>\n

Pistorius also alleged that Russian Luch\/Olymp<\/a> satellites have been shadowing two communications satellites operated by US firm Intelsat that are used by the Bundeswehr.<\/p>\n

The Luch\/Olymp birds, characterized by Moscow as \u201cinspector satellites,\u201d have been making close passes<\/a> around a number of US and Western nation satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit since at least 2015. <\/p>\n

The MoD is reaching out to German and European industry for assistance in making its space plans a reality, Pistorius stressed.<\/p>\n

He explained that Berlin wants to \u201cpromote innovations from small and medium-sized enterprises in the future in a non-bureaucratic and early stage \u2014 and use larger companies as system integrators to integrate small businesses and startups,\u201d according to the MoD press release.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s major launch company, Arianespace, announced today<\/a> that it has been awarded a contract by the Bundeswehr to launch two SATCOMBw Stufe 3 satellites on heavy-lift Ariane 6 rockets. The new satellites are to replace the COMSATBw 1 and 2 military communications birds.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Pitorius said, MoD is \u201calso currently looking at market-available solutions. Specifically where this technological shortcut makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the company didn\u2019t cite the specific agency involved due to security concerns, Planet Labs Germany GmbH, the American firm\u2019s European headquarters, announced on July 1<\/a> that it had received a \u201cmulti-year \u20ac240 million agreement, funded by the German government, in support of European peace and security\u201d for \u201chigh-resolution imagery and timely intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today<\/a> in Berlin, the company announced plans \u201cto begin production of next-generation, high-resolution Pelican satellites in Germany\u201d under a deal \u201cexpected to exceed 8 figures\u201d in capital investment. <\/p>\n

Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, told Breaking Defense that one big winner from the MoD\u2019s plan will be OHB<\/a>, headquartered in Bremen, which Henry described as Germany\u2019s \u201cbiggest space prime.\u201d<\/p>\n

OHB operates five aging SAR-Lupe synthetic aperture radar satellites that provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the German military. In 2023, the company launched two replacements, called SARah, but were moribund until a recovery maneuver to deploy their jammed antennas this spring brought them into service, according to a May 27<\/a> report by market analysis firm Seradata. <\/p>\n

Henry said he would also \u201cbe watching to see if this proposal has any impact on Germany\u2019s emerging launch providers, notably Isar Aerospace and RFA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGermany has discussed its own MEO [medium Earth orbit] constellation as well, which would be a notable investment in sovereign space systems,\u201d Henry added.<\/p>\n

He noted that the move may be the start of a trend away from France being the only big player in European space. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting to me is that for a long time, when looking at where Europe, if you kind of ask the the old Henry Kissinger question, \u2018when I call Europe, who do I call?\u2019 for the space industry that has always been France. But in recent years, we\u2019ve started to see more of a pendulum swing towards Germany,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so to me, it\u2019s the culmination of a \u2026 growing desire in Germany for greater space autonomy, and a willingness to pursue that, if necessary, on an independent basis,\u201d Henry said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius today announced that Berlin will invest \u20ac35 billion ($41 billion) over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[63,2226,170,7727,85,46,141,145,19632],"class_list":["post-42630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-global","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}