Germany’s Foreign Minister Boris Pistorius said that his country’s army is already targeting Russian satellites by jamming attacks launched by them and is very worried about Russian activity in space. He says that Russian satellites are also deliberately “shadowing” SES/Intelsat satellites used by Germany.

“Russia and China have expanded their capabilities for warfare in space rapidly over the past years: They can disrupt satellite operations, blind satellites, manipulate or kinetically destroy them,” Pistorius said at a space satellite conference in Berlin. “They can disrupt satellite operations, blind satellites, manipulate or kinetically destroy them,” he added. “As we speak, 39 Chinese and Russian reconnaissance satellites are flying over us. Their observations are being transmitted in real time.”

Two Russian ‘Luch-Olymp’ satellites, launched in 2014 and 2023 respectively, have faced longstanding accusations of “loitering” near other satellites and attempting to deliberately “eavesdrop” on them by positioning themselves in close proximity and as well as posing a threat to the satellites themselves are accused of collecting date and messages carried by the satellites.

Minister Pistorius told delegates that Germany would invest around €35 billion over the next 5 years for Germany’s space programme and to help respond to threats from Russia and China.

Arianespace used the event to announce that it had signed contracts with Airbus Defence & Space for the launch of two German SATCOMbw Stufe 3 satellites for the German army. SATCOMBw Stufe 3 is the next generation secure military satellite system of Germany.

Airbus is the prime contractor for the design, integration, test and in orbit delivery of the two new military GEO telecommunications satellites which are the successor communications satellites to COMSATBw 1 and 2. It also includes upgrading of the existing ground segment to operate the new satellites as well as operational services for 15 years, with the possibility of extension.

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Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: germany, russia, satellite