OTTAWA – Forget the notion of space being off-limits to human conflict. According to three defence experts who spoke at the Space Bound 2022 conference, space is the next military theatre — and Canada and its allies need to prepare their satellites, spacecraft, and ground stations to deal with this harsh reality.
That was the takeaway from the session, “Global Reach: A Canadian Perspective On Space Defence Capabilities,” which was hosted by Space Canada at Ottawa’s Bayview Yards. “It’s important to understand that space is a contested environment,” said Brigadier-General C.A. (Chris) McKenna, the RCAF’s Director General of Air and Space Force Development; one of the three experts who spoke during this session. “We have to be cognizant of the fact and not naive [about the fact] that our spacecraft within that environment should be protected,” just as one protects a military aircraft using a range of defensive and offensive weapons in contested/degraded flight environments.
Although anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) have existed for decades, with the intent of destroying satellites in a variety of ways, the most serious threat to these systems “increasingly come from cyber threats of various kinds,” said Dr. Wesley Wark, Senior Fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Combatting cyber threats to in-orbit satellites and the ground stations that connect to them requires a two-pronged approach, he said. “One is to make sure we can elevate cyber security standards to the degree that we feel are necessary,” Dr. Wark noted. “Secondly, as with anything else in the world of cyber, redundancy needs to be built into these systems so that we don’t uniquely rely on a single platform in space that can easily be disabled.”
This is where low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite constellations such as Telesat’s Lightspeed (188 LEOs offering continuous global coverage) can be a boon to governments seeking redundant, cyber secure solutions, according to Stephen Hampton, Telesat’s Head of Public Policy. “We designed the [Lightspeed] network to make sure that we do have the standards in place [and] the redundancy there,” he said. “When we think of the value-add of a low Earth Orbit satellite activity system, you’ve got low latency, which is critical. You also have complete ubiquitous coverage including over the poles, which is a big challenge for traditional (geosynchronous) communication satellites.”
The power of these LEO advantages have been shown in Ukraine, added Hampton. “It’s been a really good proof of concept of how LEO satellites can make a difference.”
One thing is certain: The Canadian government now sees space as a vital aspect of our defensive posture, and an element that has to be included in its military planning.
“I can’t think of a project that we have embarked upon that does not have a nexus to space,” said Brigadier-General McKenna. “And if it doesn’t, we need to be seeking to find a way to tie in.” After all, the RCAF’s mission is to control the high ground during military conflicts, and space is “the ultimate high ground,” he said.