NATO officials say the commercial sector is suffering from a lack of information flow, including what technology NATO will need in the future.
advertisementNATO has made no secret of its plans to work more closely with the commercial sector. space defense ambitions But categorization on certain topics can be difficult for companies, NATO officials told Euronews Next.
At the alliance's first space symposium held last week in Toulouse, France, startups and large corporations rubbed shoulders with senior NATO officials in military uniform.
French company Preligens is showing how its artificial intelligence (AI) system processes space data from satellites to show what's happening anywhere in the world, including North Korea, China and Russia. I introduced it.
The location of Russia's Engels Air Force Base, 750 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was entered into a computer. This will allow the Ministry of Defense to instantly check the presence of military aircraft and changes in their activities in real time.
Analyzing this type of data typically takes 2 to 4 hours to review a single location, but this technology takes minutes, is 95% accurate, and is capable of reducing the number of weapons an aircraft can carry. It's so accurate that you can even narrow it down. carry.
The company has previously cooperated with NATO Since 2019, it has also partnered with the French Ministry of Defense (MOD), but forming a partnership with the alliance was not easy.
“When we started working with NATO, it wasn't easy. Nothing is easy in business, nothing is easy in defence. And we had some evidence earlier with the French Ministry of Defense. “The fact that we have this in place has been very helpful to us,'' said Thomas Reynard, Product Marketing, Preligens. the manager told Euronews Next.
But he said that because NATO is a large organization, it was difficult to gain traction and talk to the right people.
“It can be difficult to get traction to identify key players. So this was a first step for us, but identifying key players in any defense contract is difficult,” he said. I did.
Confidential information
NATO declared space a priority for the organization in 2019 when the Allies adopted the NATO Space Policy, recognizing space as a new operational domain alongside air, land, sea and cyberspace.
Collaboration with the commercial sector is critical for NATO and the Ministry of Defence, as it is an expensive sector and technology is developing very quickly. But NATO does not rely solely on the commercial sector for space defense.
NATO officials told a news conference that the commercial sector faces a variety of challenges in cooperating with governments and NATO.
Space technology companies not only struggle with the complexity of government structures, but also with NATO as an organization with very different entry points and employment relationships, officials said.
The commercial sector is suffering from a lack of information flow, such as what technology NATO will need in the future, the official added.
This is primarily because the topics NATO works on are highly categorized.
Another issue is that the procurement process is long and complex, the official said, which can be difficult for companies as it requires more capital to sustain itself during the procurement process. said.
commercial interests
Although NATO is increasingly opening up to commerce, it still has systems in place to guard against the effects of commercial interests and geopolitical conflicts.
“One of the first questions we ask is, is there a third party or other company involved in this? Is it a shell company for a Chinese Communist Party company or is it not? That's why we do such due diligence checks,'' Air Commodore said. Darren Whiteley, the U.S. Space Command's deputy director for policy and plans, spoke at a news conference for a small group of journalists.
advertisementBut he said companies “don't want to get in the way of commercial companies doing commercial business” if the information they provide is shared and there is no risk to NATO.
Mr Whiteley said: “There will probably be discussions where some of the activities could have implications for national security or collective security.”
NATO is working on a commercial space strategy and will look to the commercial sector to see how better cooperation can be established.
