The announcement at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday means space will now be regarded as equally important for NATO alongside air, land, sea and cyberspace. The move illustrates the growing significance of space for the alliance.

“This can allow NATO planners to make requests for allies to provide capabilities and services, such as hours of satellite communications,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

“Space is part of our daily life here on Earth. It can be used for peaceful purposes. But it can also be used aggressively. Satellites can be jammed, hacked or weaponized. Anti-satellite weapons could cripple communications and other services our societies rely on, such as air travel, weather forecast or banking,” he said. “Space is also essential to the alliance’s deterrence and defense, including the ability to navigate, gather intelligence and to detect missile launches.”

It is estimated that about 2,000 satellites currently orbit Earth, with half owned by NATO member countries.

Ministers agreed that space is “essential” to NATO’s deterrence and defense, from its ability to navigate and track forces, to satellite communications and detecting missile launches.

The agreement comes ahead of next month’s NATO leadership meeting in London, England, and it places space firmly on to the agenda when NATO military commanders plan or review the alliance’s posture and activities.

NATO insists it has “no intention” to put weapons in space or develop its own space-based capabilities. Stoltenberg on Wednesday specifically said NATO has no plans to “weaponize space.”

“Our approach will remain defensive and fully in line with international law. NATO has no intention to put weapons in space. But we need to ensure our missions and operations have the right support,” he said.

“But,” he added, “we have to relate to the fact that space is becoming more and more important for our military operations and missions. This is to do with the vulnerability and resilience of our civilian societies because space is so important for navigation, communications and for many other things.”

NATO’s largest ally, the United States, recently stood up a Space Command.

Speaking at a news briefing on Tuesday, Stoltenberg had refused to be drawn into a discussion about the relationship between U.S. Space Command and NATO’s possible future space-based early-warning capabilities. “I will not go into the specifics of how we are going to communicate with national space commands and national space capabilities,” he said. “What NATO will do will be defensive, and we will not deploy weapons in space.”

“Some NATO allies have expressed their concerns over Huawei and their role in providing 5G infrastructure. And, of course, NATO takes these concerns very seriously,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference in Brussels on Thursday.

Some officials in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have been pushing for him to sign an order that could result in U.S. companies being barred from buying Huawei technology.

Earlier this week, there were reports that U.S. European Command chief Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti had warned that NATO forces would stop communicating with German colleagues if Berlin were to team up with Huawei for its 5G telecom infrastructure.

The Wall Street Journal said the Trump administration had sent to Berlin a warning that it would scale back data-sharing with German security agencies if China’s Huawei were to get a role in Germany’s next-generation mobile infrastructure.

Shenzhen-based Huawei competes with Apple and Samsung as a smartphone maker and is the global leader in next-generation high-speed 5G mobile network technology.

But some governments have banned Huawei from supplying parts to their networks due to security fears.

The company has repeatedly denied that it works with the Chinese government and that its products are designed to facilitate spying.

But the United States is lobbying European and other allies to shun the company as their phone carriers invest billions in upgrading to next-generation mobile networks.

At a news conference to unveil his annual report, Stoltenberg was asked if there was a chance that NATO would recommend to allies to ban Chinese companies from 5G procurement. He was also asked if NATO had any evidence of state-sponsored cyberattacks from China.

“We are now consulting closely on this issue, including on the security aspects of investments in 5G networks. I know that this is something which is addressed in many NATO capitals, and it is an issue which is partly a trade and an economic issue, but also has potential security implications,” he told reporters.

“So we will now consult. We will assess the issue and find out how NATO as an alliance can, in the best possible way, address the challenges related to investments in 5G infrastructure.

“This is a very important issue and therefore I will not speculate so much about the potential outcomes of the assessments and discussions which are now going on in different NATO countries.

“Regardless of this, NATO has significantly stepped up our efforts when it comes to cyber defense and cybersecurity.”

By conducting large-scale exercises, increasing awareness and sharing best practices NATO had sought to “strengthen the resilience of infrastructure and cyber networks for all allies, including our own networks,” he said.

The secretary general’s annual report, published on Thursday, shows that defense spending among European allies and Canada increased by almost 4 percent from 2017 to 2018, and that in the period from 2016 to 2018, they have contributed an additional cumulative spending of more than $41 billion.

“We expect that figure to rise to $100 billion by the end of next year,” Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg said that in 2018, seven allies had already reached the benchmark of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, up from three in 2014. A majority of allies is also spending more than 20 percent of their defense expenditure on major equipment, and, according to 2018 national plans, 24 allies will meet that target by 2024.

The report also shows that allies continue to make “valuable contributions” to NATO’s operations, missions and other activities, said Stoltenberg, who indicated that there are “more than 20,000 troops serving from Afghanistan and Iraq to Kosovo, the Baltic countries and Poland.”

As an important regulatory power, the 28-strong bloc can decide “what should and should not be allowed” in the field of autonomous weapons, she said Thursday at the European Defense Agency’s annual conference. The gathering drew an audience of 400 attendees representing the European defense spectrum, including governments, armed forces, industry, EU institutions, NATO and think tanks.

Work is ongoing to define a first set of guiding principles on autonomous weapons, “and this work needs close cooperation between governments, the industry and civil society,” the Italian said.

Mogherini declared: “Humans must always remain in control of the use of lethal force.”

The event coincided with a separate conference on drones in Amsterdam where European Aviation Safety Agency executive director Patrick Ky spoke of the “need to regulate differently on drones, faster and better, encouraging innovation while ensuring safe, secure and socially acceptable operations.”

In an opening address to the EDA event, Mogherini said: “We know that artificial intelligence poses new security challenges and it is now starting to be weaponized. We are entering a world where drones could independently search for a target and kill without human intervention. AI could take decisions on life and death, with no direct control from a human being.

“The warning about the dangers ahead is coming from the very people who are working on AI: researchers, pioneers and business people as well, who don’t want to see their own discoveries exploited for malicious goals.”

Mogherini told the conference: “Together we can define the boundaries of AI applications so that within those limits, scientists are free to explore the immense positive potential of AI.”

Supporting innovation and having a strong industry is essential for Europe’s security, and this is also true with AI, noted Mogherini, adding, “Almost 50 percent of global private investment in artificial intelligence startups is happening in China. We Europeans cannot afford to waste time and to be less innovative than other world powers. It is a matter of economic growth, and it is a matter of security.”

While European defense industries and research laboratories are “among the best in the world,” investment from European national governments in defense research and technology continues to decrease, she warned.

Her comments about the EU’s regulatory role in autonomous systems were echoed by Mariya Gabriel, the bloc’s commissioner responsible for Digital Economy and Society. “We should reflect on how best we can ensure that the regulatory environment promotes the rise of strong European actors, which is crucial in a digital world where the winner takes all,” Gabriel said.

EDA chief executive Jorge Domecq told the packed audience that while the challenges were “considerable,” autonomous applications are “already crucial capabilities whose importance for defense will further grow in the future.”

Meanwhile at the EASA conference in the Netherlands, an “Amsterdam declaration” was adopted by participants. It urges the EU and industry to “continue the good progress towards the delivery of the common European drone services market.”

• Strengthen NATO’s new command structure by more than 1,200 personnel.
• Launch a NATO Readiness Initiative, the so-called Four Thirties.
  
• Set up a Cyber Operations Centre, as part of the new Command Structure, and integrate sovereign cyber effects into alliance operations and missions.
  

Defense ministers also agreed that the new Joint Force Command for the Atlantic will be based at Norfolk, Virginia, in the United States and that a new Enabling Command will be based in Ulm, Germany.

“The decisions we have taken today pave the way for a successful summit in July, with more investment, more equitable burden-sharing and a strengthened defense posture,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference Thursday evening.

“Allies have also stepped up their contributions to NATO missions and operations. But of course, we still have more work to do. Burden-sharing will be a key theme of our summit next month, and I expect all allies to continue their efforts,” he added.

Speaking at a conference on cyber crime in Paris May 15, Stoltenberg said, “In the Second World War there was a popular saying, ‘Loose lips sink ships.’ Today, it is weak passwords, failing to add software updates, or opening unfamiliar emails. Simple things. But if we get them right, we go a long way to protecting ourselves.”

Stoltenberg was speaking at the Ecole Militaire in the French capital on a major conference on NATO’s so-called “Cyber Defence Pledge” which, he said, had helped nations to look at their cyber-defences in a more holistic way.

NATO countries have faced a series of attacks in recent years.

In France, TV-Cinq Monde was taken off air by hackers while Fancy Bear, a group associated with the Kremlin, hacked the main political parties in the United States in what Stoltenberg called “a brazen attempt to influence the 2016 election.”

Last year’s WannaCry attack forced Renault to halt production at several of its factories and a cyberattack brought hospitals in the UK to a standstill.

“The very nature of these attacks is a challenge,” Stoltenberg said. “It is often difficult to know who has attacked you or even if you have been attacked at all. There are many different actors.

“Governments, but also criminal gangs, terrorist groups and lone individuals. Nowhere is the ‘Fog of War’ thicker than it is in cyberspace,” he said. “If these were hard attacks, using bombs or missiles instead of computer code, they could be considered an act of war. But instead, some are using software to wage a soft-war – a soft-war with very real, and potentially deadly consequences.”

In 2014, NATO leaders agreed that a cyberattack could trigger Article 5, meaning that an attack on one ally is treated as an attack on all allies.

He added, “I am often asked, ‘under what circumstances would NATO trigger Article 5 in the case of a cyber-attack?’ My answer is: we will see. The level of cyberattack that would provoke a response must remain purposefully vague as will the nature of our response.

“But it could include diplomatic and economic sanctions, cyber-responses, or even conventional forces, depending on the nature and consequences of the attack.But whatever the response, NATO will continue to follow the principle of restraint. And act in accordance with international law.”

In less than two years, almost every ally had upgraded their cyber defences with France leading the way, investing €1.6 billion and employing thousands more cyber experts.

He also pointed to Nato’s new Command Structure and Cyber Rapid Reaction teams.

With the alleged Russian hacks during the U.S. election still under investigation, European governments are now bracing for cyber-meddling by Moscow in upcoming national elections in France, the Netherlands and Germany. It has all led to fears that a new era of cyber-sabotage has begun.

Concerns are particularly heightened in Germany, where Russian hackers have previously taken aim at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and where there are concerns Russian cyber-meddlers could help tilt the 2017 federal elections toward the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which made gains in recent regional elections.

Hans-Georg Maaßen, the head of Germany’s Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution, a domestic security agency, said there was a clear threat from Russian hackers seeking to sow “uncertainty in German society” and to destabilize the country.

“In the political arena we see increasing and aggressive cyber espionage,” he said. “We see a potential hazard to members of the German government, the Bundestag [German parliament] and employees of democratic parties through cyber operations.”

And it does indeed seem like a tactic, rather than an incident. While Russian interference in the U.S. election has attracted far more attention, the tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro, which is in the process of joining NATO, came under a barrage of cyberattacks on the day it held parliamentary elections in October. There were also reports of a Russian-directed false news campaign aimed at defeating the Dec. 4 constitutional referendum in Italy. Miguel De Bruycker of Belgium’s Centre for Cyber Security said that the websites of the Belgian defense ministry and of the Prime Minister Charles Michel have also been the victims of recent cyberattacks.

For obvious reasons, election hacking has been a hot topic in the U.S., but other countries are also worried about someone breaking into their voting infrastructure and tampering with the democratic process.

“Unfortunately we cannot exclude such activities in Germany, either,” said Social Democrat MP Rolf Mützenich of hackings that could influence the polls.

German members of Parliament and administration workers were victims of a hacker attack in 2015, when a group called “Sofacy” infiltrated 14 Bundestag servers and stole 16 gigabytes worth of information. Politicians and intelligence officials alike are worried that information gathered in this attack could be used to discredit politicians closer to election day next year.

Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, says Russia in particular has made “brilliant use” of old and new forms of propaganda to exploit political divisions. Opportunistic but sophisticated campaigns are an attempt, he believes, to “sabotage democracy.”

That said, the fight back is underway. Western intelligence agencies, for instance, have been monitoring a Russian campaign on a Cold War scale to support a wide range of European parties and actors. Elsewhere, NATO, the EU and member countries are being actively encouraged to participate in the work of the European Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats and also exchange information between the EU Hybrid Fusion cell and its NATO counterpart.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Defense News, “Faced with this developing threat, NATO has not sat idle. We have worked hard to bolster our own networks and to help allies strengthen their cyber defenses.”

In France, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recently announced plans to develop an offensive capability in cybersecurity and the creation of a “cyber commander” post.It was the first time a French official confirmed the intention to take an offensive step in the digital domain rather than simply defend against hackers. Combat units specializing in information technology will be formed, to respond to attacks by neutralizing those incoming threats.

The French defense minister was clear in statement made Dec. 12 during a visit to the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office at Bruz, northern France: “Our cyber offensive capability should allow us to enter our enemy’s systems or networks in order to damage, interrupt service or to neutralize temporarily or permanently.”

Pierre Tran in Paris contributed to this report.

Union interior ministers called for stepped-up checks on EU citizens entering the 26-nation Schengen zone in a move aimed at preventing foreign fighters moving back and forth in the wake of the Islamist militant attacks in Paris, which left 129 people dead and hundreds injured.

The move would broaden current checks, which focus on non-EU citizens, to potentially all those entering by land, air or sea into Europe’s border-free zone. It comes as evidence has emerged that the presumed ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian who died during a police raid Wednesday, traveled to Syria and then came back undetected into the EU.

The proposed tightening of checks on all travellers at the external borders of the EU follows recognition that Europe has fallen short in screening and tracking suspected terrorists.
According to a draft text of the ministers’ statement, EU ministers will “undertake to implement immediately the necessary systematic and coordinated checks at external borders, including on individuals enjoying the right of free movement.”

In a separate move, France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has called on Europe to “wake up” to the threat posed by Islamic State extremists and take steps to ensure the safety of citizens.

“Terrorists are crossing the borders of the European Union,” he said. “It is urgent that Europe wakes up, organises itself and defends itself against the terrorist threat.” 

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says police have conducted 600 raids targeting Islamic extremists in the week since the Paris attacks.

The Belgium government, meanwhile, has unilaterally introduced a raft of new security measures following  the Paris attacks and the consequent focus on Belgian inner cities as a crucible of jihadism, including:

• Belgians found to have gone to fight in Syria and returned to Belgium will be imprisoned. The federal prosecutor’s office estimates 135 returned foreign fighters are now in the country, at liberty but under surveillance by the security services.
• Anyone deemed by the security services to be a threat because of their radicalization will have to wear an electronic tagging bracelet.
• In terrorist cases, detention is to be extended from 24 hours to 72, necessitating an amendment to the Belgian constitution.
• And Belgium is not going to wait any longer for the long-delayed European decision on sharing of passenger data for security purposes. All passengers travelling by plane or high-speed train will have to register their details prior to departure.

The measures authorize the deployment of 520 soldiers on Belgian territory, and an extra €400 million (US $428 million) is going to be spent on the country’s overstretched security services.

Molenbeek, the rundown Brussels district that is home to several wanted terrorists, faces a clampdown summarized as “prevention and repression.”

U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May, who was in Brussels for the emergency ministerial meeting, said, “I think we need accelerated progress on firearms. I would like to see all member states committing to improving the measures and penalties for dealing with those who traffic in firearms.

“On passenger name records (PNR), we need to see immediate progress,” she said. “The negotiation’s taken too long. That must be concluded. The U.K. will be going ahead with obtaining records from those who are operating to and from the U.K.”

After the meeting, France’s Cazaneuve said, “Terrorists are crossing the borders of the European Union. We can’t take any more time. This is urgent.”

Valls said that while there was no such thing as “zero risk,” the EU’s 26-nation, passport-free Schengen zone would be “jeopardized” if Europe did not considerably improve border security. The terrorist threat, Valls warned, would be “long and permanent.”

The interior ministers’ meeting in Brussels followed an announcement Thursday by Europol Director Rob Wainwright that the EU police agency’s database now contained the names of 28,000 people in the EU who needed monitoring for possible terror links, including the confirmed names of 2,000 foreign fighters from EU countries who had been to Syria.

Meanwhile, reacting to EU calls for an intelligence agency, Tim Kirkhope, a U.K. Conservative member of Parliament and his party’s Home Affairs spokesman, said, “Commissioner Avramopoulos might want to read the EU’s treaties, which clearly say that national security is the competence of the member states.

“There are a large number of instruments which we can make better use of and make more effective,” Kirkhope said. “We do need better sharing of information, but we do not need a new European intelligence agency to do that. January the 1st will see the counter-terrorism center in EUROPOL ready for action, and an internet referral unit under EUROPOL remit is in the pipeline. I am also positive that the EU-PNR Directive will be finalized by the end of the year to give us more tools in the fight against terror and serious crime.”

Email: mbanks@defensenews.com