The era of space defense has well and truly arrived. NATO, one of the key organizations focused on space and defense, has made a number of signature announcements over the last two months in this area.
One of the main announcements involves building a highly ambitious new constellation. Eight NATO allies plan to build a new multinational initiative named HALO – Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space. HALO will focus on improving connectivity and integration of sovereign, nationally owned and controlled military satellites into a networked megaconstellation. It aims to improve NATO’s resilience and military advantage in space, enabling high-speed communications, intelligence and missile tracking. It aims to overcome the cost, time and coverage limitations of single-nation satellite fleets.
In another major announcement, 17 NATO nations signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) committing to strengthening the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) initiative. APSS supports NATO operations and improves intelligence sharing among commands by accelerating the processes for receiving and analyzing data gathered from space-based sensors, operated by nations and commercial providers.
Increased Commitment
The commitment to better space capabilities is clear. Via Satellite spoke to Dylan Browne, general manager of NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), about these recent announcements. Browne said there was a clear sense of momentum at the recent NATO Summit as allies continue to deliver on their defense investment commitments.
“In 2025, European Allies and Canada increased their investments in core defense requirements by more than $139 billion, a nearly 20 percent increase. This means more capability and resilience for the alliance and more production from our industries,” he said. “At the recent Summit we announced more than $50 billion in new procurements, and there was a tremendous focus on innovation and working with industry. On behalf of NCIA, I signed a contract for the Protected Business Network (PBN) program, to deliver a secure, cloud-enabled digital infrastructure to NATO, and a contract to advance the procurement of a Data-Centric Platform for NATO’s Air Command and Control.”
The PBN aims to establish the foundation for classified digital operations across the NATO Enterprise, ensuring decisionmakers and warfighters across domains can communicate, coordinate, and access critical data in a modern standardized and scalable cloud environment that is more resilient to external attack and disruption.
The PBN program will look to replace legacy approaches and strengthen the agility and security of the NATO digital infrastructure by introducing a common cloud operating model, standardized engineering practices and a secure environment for digital services.
A Hybrid Constellation
The announcement of HALO is an exciting one, and perhaps a pointer to NATO’s future when it comes to space. During the exploratory phase, participating nations will discuss the overall multinational architecture of the future constellation and its concrete requirements, including scope and costs. They will also focus on the first phase of the project, which is to build the transport layer from scratch – connecting to existing as well as future national assets and capabilities.
Interoperability will be crucial to this project. Developing strong ties with national initiatives, in particular the U.S. Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, will be an essential part of it. Implementation will be incremental. The first phase will focus on the development and delivery of the transport constellation. “It is too early to say when exactly implementation will start,” according to a NATO source.
A Step Change
The announcements indicate a new era for NATO when it comes to space defense. NATO declared space its fifth domain in 2019 – a recognition of its growing military importance. It is now seen as an increasingly important part of its work and many parts of the NATO enterprise are involved. The demand for NCIA’s expertise is increasing, according to Browne.
NCIA manages over 300 complex programs at any time. Currently, approximately 25 percent of its budget is devoted to space initiatives covering secure communications, commercial satellite communications, imagery and intelligence, and deployed CIS, among other things. In addition, NCIA is home to the Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) Centre, which includes airborne and space-derived intelligence.
You can see the shift in attention through multiple examples, Browne said.
Browne said that Military Satellite Communications remains the cornerstone of NATO’s SATCOM architecture, delivering secure, resilient, and mission-critical communications to operational users across the full spectrum of alliance activities — from strategic nuclear deterrence and headquarters to deployed forces and the tactical edge. NCIA is working to improve terminals, spectrum efficiency and protected communications, reinforcing satcom as a core element of NATO’s operational backbone.
“NATO recognizes the growing importance of the commercial space sector. We developed a Commercial Space Strategy aimed at strengthening cooperation with industry, improving access to commercial capabilities, and making sure we can integrate innovations into alliance operations,” he adds.
Space for the High North
Browne notes that many NATO nations have launched dedicated programs focused on the High North that incorporate tailored space-enabled solutions.
“Canada and Norway have expanded cooperation through the Arctic Space Partnership, focusing on areas such as Earth Observation (EO), satellite communications, and maritime domain awareness. In addition, NATO has developed the NORTHLINK initiative to connect space-based communication systems across the Arctic using existing commercial satellites,” he said.
Another project to look out for is Project SINBAD (Smart Indicators and Warning Broad Area Detection), a pilot project to test existing commercial sector space-based monitoring services and examine how they can support NATO users.
“SINBAD captures one of the many challenges of integrating commercial analytics: the demands of our military commands for speed of detection and delivery of alerts is significantly higher than for many commercial “customers”, and with a global area of interest, the veracity of targets of interest is high. Commercial providers must rise to the challenge of the operational need set out by the Alliance,” Browne said.
