The NATO Space Centre of Excellence in Toulouse, France, received its official accreditation on July 14, 2023. Since then, the center has been actively working to expand its capabilities and grow its staff, supported by its 15 sponsoring nations.
The center will work to improve the Alliance’s expertise in the space domain, providing knowledge, analysis and products across three operational functions: space domain awareness, operational space support and space domain coordination.
The primary role of a center of excellence is to assist NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk, Virginia, with the transformation within the Alliance, while considering current and future operational needs, as communicated by Allied Command Operations in Mons, Belgium.
Although not part of the NATO command structure, the Space Centre of Excellence (COE) is designed to complement the Alliance’s current resources, providing expertise in the space domain to contribute to and enhance NATO capabilities. Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation coordinates the activities of the COE, ensuring that its outputs align with the ACT strategic priorities. Consequently, a program of work is agreed to annually by the COE steering committee, composed of representatives from each sponsoring nation.
While the overall purpose is the same for all 30 of NATO’s centers of excellence, the contribution of NATO nations differs with each. The Space COE’s sponsoring nations demonstrate strong international interest in the space domain. A peculiarity of the domain is the broad spectrum of related capabilities and technologies, both in space and on Earth, indicating a high level of complexity and, therefore, the need to employ personnel with advanced skills. The center will face these challenges in its establishment phase. The center achieved a key milestone, chairing its first pre-Annual Discipline Conference, on May 26, 2023. In this role, the center identifies and coordinates space education and training solutions for all operating bodies across the Alliance. By preparing, coordinating and chairing this event, the center proved its ability to support the Alliance. The conditions are already in place for the center to coordinate NATO’s space-related education and training, deliver analysis and lessons learned, and provide hands-on concept development and experimentation.
Within its core activity, the center will assist the development of doctrine and standards by accelerating Alliance work on space-related matters, deepening and expanding its use of the space domain, and supporting the integration of space concepts and technologies. It will stimulate space interoperability and provide a bridge between NATO, relevant national and international space organizations and institutions, and commercial sectors and academia.
The center was pleased to participate in the 39th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, using its booth to showcase the Alliance’s approach to the space domain and
future space operations. With the appointment in 2023 of director Sylvain Debarre, a colonel in the French Air and Space Force, the center is working to grow its expertise as fast as possible, celebrating a motivated team that currently comprises 29 people from 10 nations.
To achieve this objective, the director, deputy director and chief of staff leverage the skills of the COE’s experienced personnel, managing the daily business of the center and welcoming newcomers into the growing multinational team. New personnel are assigned to one of the center’s four pillars, or divisions, or they join its Strategic and Technology Division, advising the command team.
The divisions contribute, under the umbrella of the ACT Space Branch, to the NATO goal of improving space capabilities. To this end, they support the definition and analysis of requirements, explore and outline existing solutions within NATO and its nations, and suggest optimal solutions for gaps in equipment and technology.
Although still in its establishment phase, the Space COE is already actively supporting NATO on several key issues. For instance, the Concept, Development and Experimentation Division (CD&E) is monitoring space trends and examining future space concepts and capabilities that could be of interest to NATO and its Partners. CD&E is actively engaged in technical exercises, supporting wargaming and the test and evaluation of concepts through experimentation. CD&E participated in NATO exercise Steadfast Jupiter 2023 and the French Space Command’s Exercise AsterX 2024. The CD&E Team was also involved in NATO Exercise CWIX 2024, supporting the ACT Space Branch during its planning conferences and execution phase in Bydgoszcz, Poland. CD&E is also a member of the Federated Mission Networking (FMN) Space Tiger Team, supporting the definition of procedural instructions for, as an example, the Recognised Space Picture within FMN, a NATO initiative that aims to advance the ability to train, communicate and operate among Allied and Partner nations.
The COE Doctrine and Standardisation Division (D&S) is responsible for creating the doctrinal framework for space, and the center is very proud to have assumed custodianship in April 2024 of the NATO Space Operations Doctrine (Allied Joint Publication [AJP] 3.29). D&S is also working to support space integration within wider doctrine and to ensure that it makes relevant connections to AJP 3.29. D&S achieves its aims through its involvement in, among others, the Allied Joint Doctrine Working Group, global NATO doctrine development, Allied Tactical Publication 102 development, and support to NAVWAR doctrine. NAVWAR, a subset of electronic warfare, is the deliberate disruption of an adversary’s use of global navigation satellite system signals for navigation.
The D&S Team also provides support to wider COE activities, providing relevant doctrinal perspectives on matters such as FMN development.
The Education and Training (E&T) Division is investigating individual and collective training solutions to develop Suitably Qualified and Experienced Personnel (SQEP) for space within the Alliance. As the department head for space discipline, the NATO Space COE chaired the latest Annual Discipline Conference in May 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. E&T supports key Allied exercises and educational activities and directly contributes to the NATO Space Course delivered by the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. It also seeks to find and develop educational and individual training solutions for leaders and specialists within NATO member and Partner nations. The E&T Division participates in global programming events such as the NATO Individual Training and Education Conference and the NATO Education and Individual Training Planning Board and is actively involved in training requirements analysis for the space discipline. Recent activities have included support for the preparation and execution of major NATO exercises, including Steadfast Jupiter 2023 and Steadfast Deterrence/Duel 2024, both based in Stavanger, Norway, with E&T members operating as Space Red Team opposition forces, taking over this role from the Joint Air Power Competence Centre.
The final division, Analysis and Lessons Learned, aims to optimize the processes followed by the other three. In accordance with the NATO Space COE establishment plan, the first position within this division was filled in 2024.
There is no doubt that the Space COE is already active in its pursuit of solutions to operational challenges within the space domain, working both to support troops on the ground and to protect Allied assets in space.
Tackling NATO space challenges
NATO is an important forum within which Allies can share information, increase interoperability and coordinate actions. The Alliance does not intend to develop space capabilities of its own and will instead leverage national space assets for positioning, navigation and timing; early warning; secure satellite communications; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Each of these technologies plays a crucial role in informing national and international situational awareness, planning and decision-making.
At the June 2021 Brussels Summit, NATO leaders stated that “attacks to, from, or within space present a clear challenge to the security of the Alliance, the impact of which could threaten
national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security and stability, and could be as harmful to modern societies as a conventional attack.” Coherently, the 2022 NATO Strategic Concept underlines the vital role of space for NATO’s deterrence and defense posture. More than half of all active satellites in Earth’s orbit belong to NATO members or companies based within their territories. As well as describing the increasing threats in space, the Strategic Concept also contains an Allied commitment to enhancing the “ability to operate effectively in space … to prevent, detect, counter and respond to the full spectrum of threats.” Accordingly, NATO “will boost the resilience of the space capabilities upon which we depend for our collective defense and security.”
The space domain is essential to every NATO operation, but it also is increasingly contested. For this reason, the role of the NATO Space COE is to contribute to the development of NATO space activities to meet the challenges of this fast-changing security environment.
The Space COE mission is thus to develop doctrine and training, and identify and test future technologies and solutions.
Consequently, besides ensuring the availability of optimum space support for Allied operations and missions — including communications, navigation, and intelligence — NATO’s approach to space also seeks to prevent potential adversaries from challenging the space capabilities on which it relies. As space is increasingly crucial to the security and prosperity of the Alliance, as much as to each ally, the NATO Space COE is committed to anticipating future space needs and challenges. For instance, in the face of the proliferation of satellites in low Earth orbit and the evolution of counterspace technologies, the center offers a lookout for emerging and disruptive technologies while also assessing the relevance of current and emerging threats and analyzing future technologies related to security in space.
The NATO Space COE is thus already active in its contributions to NATO, working to shape the future of the Alliance’s space operational capabilities.
Conclusion
As summarized by Col. Debarre, “The NATO Space COE can be proud of the work done so far. With the activation of the Paris Protocol in record time, the conditions are now in place for our international members from the 15 sponsoring nations to join our COE here in Toulouse, France, at the heart of a valuable space ecosystem, and to bring in their expertise. We will use the upcoming weeks to unite the constantly growing team to tackle the next challenges, together and strengthened.”
The NATO Space COE team looks forward to welcoming NATO members and visitors to its new premises, which will be complete in 2025.
Within these walls, a new chapter of NATO Space COE history will unfold.
A version of this article appeared in Apogee, a professional military magazine published by United States Space Command.