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The space command is to work at the location of the Center for Air Operations (ZLO) in Uedem
Photo: Florian Gaertner / imago images / photothek
Germany is also being defended in space: Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) has put the Bundeswehr's first space command into service.
The command is to take over the protection and surveillance of satellites, observe dangerous space debris and analyze activities of other states as part of the military reconnaissance.
The protection of the infrastructure - satellites for communication, weather and navigation - thus becomes a military task.
The term space command arouse adventurous associations from Jules Verne to the spaceship Enterprise, said Kramp-Karrenbauer during a visit to the location of the command center in the center of air operations (ZLO) in Uedem, North Rhine-Westphalia.
The reality is "nowhere near as sensational".
As a highly industrialized and fully networked knowledge society, Germany lives from information as well as from production and export.
“That is why our prosperity and security depend to a large extent on space.
Our civil and military satellites have long been a resource without which nothing works, ”said the Minister.
"As always when a resource becomes vital, its safety becomes an issue."
"The Bundeswehr itself has six satellites of its own in low-earth orbits," said Kramp-Karrenbauer.
It is about "being able to operate in space".
She went on to say: "For Germany, space operations are always defensive operations." The aim here is to move infrastructure out of the danger zone in good time or to protect it electromagnetically.
Cooperation with the NATO allies
For the new space command, the capabilities of the air force are linked with the resources of the cyber troop “CIR” and the geographic information service.
The space command at the ZLO in Uedem will be part of an air defense system, from which the air force also has an overview of the entire airspace over Germany and controls the alarm starts of fighter planes in response to possible threats.
A space situation center was opened here last year.
Around 50 soldiers and more than 20 civilian employees at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have an eye on near-earth space and track up to 30,000 objects in a catalog.
“It doesn't work without the military or the civilian side.
You have to interlink both, ”says DLR expert Gerald Braun.
There is also cooperation with NATO allies.
Space systems as critical infrastructure
"Many communication applications, digital payment transactions as well as position determination and navigation for private and commercial use would be unthinkable without the use of space," the Bundeswehr declared last year.
The space systems are part of the critical infrastructure that the state wants to protect in particular.
The new Bundeswehr command should also be able to detect dangerous maneuvers or attempts at sabotage.
Space junk, i.e. the remains of space travel and destroyed satellites, could pose a major threat to space systems.
A military confrontation could also attack satellites on a large scale and blow them to pieces.
Targeted disruptive actions of opposing communication between space and ground stations are conceivable.
The Bundeswehr does not have the necessary weapons.
In contrast, Russia and China - and possibly also the USA - are considered to be »capable of war« in space in the narrower sense.
The President of the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS), Ekkehard Brose, welcomed the commissioning of the space command as a "significant step".
Brose told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”: “Rival states are increasingly viewing space as a possible field for future disputes.
That is why there is a serious need for Germany to get an up-to-date picture of the situation in space. "
lukewarm / dpa