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Sixteen NATO members, plus Finland and Sweden, have a launched a new initiative that aims to transform the way NATO gathers and uses data from space, including Earth observation data.
The move is intended to “significantly improve NATO’s intelligence and surveillance and provide essential support to NATO’s military missions and operations,” according to a NATO statement.
The sixteen NATO member countries are Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Calling it the ‘Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space’ (APSS), NATO says the initiative will consist in the establishment of a virtual constellation — ‘Aquila’ — of both national and commercial space assets, such as satellites, leveraging the latest advances in commercial space technology.
The aim is to streamline data collection, sharing and analysis among NATO Allies and with the NATO command structure, while generating cost savings.
“This project is also a great example of civil-military cooperation, providing a powerful asset to our intelligence toolbox,” NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană said.
Luxembourg has set the ball rolling with a contribution of 16.5 million euros, setting the groundwork for the initiative and enabling participating countries to contribute to Aquila through their own assets, data and/or funds.
The APSS letter of intent agrees that signatory nations will explore: the potential for sharing data from national surveillance satellites; processing, exploitation, and dissemination of data from within national capabilities; and funding to purchase data from commercial companies.
