Countering security challenges in space demands enhanced capabilities and cooperation among Allies, attendees at NATO’s inaugural Space Centre of Excellence (COE) conference said.
About 300 attendees representing defense, academia and industry gathered in Toulouse, France, in late April 2025 to discuss space’s emergence as a warfighting domain and how the Alliance can work to counter threats by leveraging technology and developing a ready force.
The space domain also underpins and enhances land, sea and cyber domains by providing missile warning, navigation, secure communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance functions. This evolution led NATO in 2019 to declare space an operational domain. The Alliance’s 2022 strategic concept expressed a commitment to enhancing its ability to operate effectively in space to prevent, detect, encounter and respond to the full spectrum of threats using all available tools. The Alliance established the Space COE in 2023 with a focus on four key pillars:
- Monitoring space trends, capabilities and concepts for potential development and experimentation.
- Developing doctrine and standardization for the Alliance’s space operations.
- Developing a skilled space workforce through individual and collective training programs and exercises.
- Optimizing data analysis and knowledge sharing to inform the Alliance’s space strategy.
The COE has made progress in developing space capabilities, Gen. Stephen Whiting, U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) Commander, told conference attendees during a keynote speech. Recent milestones include completion of Multinational Force–Operation Olympic Defender (MNF-OOD), a multinational effort focused on optimizing space operations amongst several other space-related tasks featuring participation from seven nations: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the U.S. MNF-OOD achieved initial operational capability, concluding in a signed campaign plan that is ready for real-world implementation, Gen. Whiting said, according to a USSPACECOM news release.
“To meet the realities of the world we live in, I encourage NATO to evolve space doctrine even further,” he said. “We know that our alliance is a strategic advantage.”
NATO’s goal is to be fully multidomain operational by 2030. Key to achieving this goal is greater interoperability — the ability for forces and nations to act coherently, effectively and efficiently to achieve a credible deterrent by enhancing resilience against threats and failures. The Alliance aims to achieve this goal through trainings and exercises and overcoming barriers in policy, legal frameworks and operational cultures.
Conference attendees also addressed ways to leverage commercial technology and industry in a global environment where the pace of fielding capabilities is crucial to maintaining a technical edge over strategic competitors. NATO is building partnerships, integrating commercial space capabilities into military operations and accelerating innovation through dual-use technologies. The Alliance is working to establish regulatory and policy frameworks to foster collaboration.
“War in space is not inevitable. U.S. Space Command remains committed to preserving space as a domain for peaceful exploration and use,” Gen. Whiting said. He called for the “collective protection and defense of the space domain to ensure, in spite of any conflict, that space will be safe and accessible for future generations.”