Sweden angles to fill a void in NATO’s space plans

LONDON — Sweden is looking to establish itself as a key player in the international space domain by virtue of its northern geostrategic position and by ramping up research and development capabilities.

Earlier this month, the Swedish government adopted the country’s first-ever defense and security space strategy, which seeks to make Stockholm a space hub for allies.

“We might be the new kids on the block in NATO, but we have been doing space research for several decades in Sweden – we’ve [now] asked what void can we fill in the alliance in the space domain,” Col. Ella Carlsson, Sweden’s space chief, told reporters here.

Northern Sweden is home to the Esrange Space Center (ESP), the first European mainland orbital spaceport. The center has in part served as a launching pad for sounding rockets and has carried out research and testing of rocket engines and fuels.

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In May, the Swedish Space Corporation announced that it signed an agreement with South Korean rocket company Perigee Aerospace to begin jointly launching satellites from the Arctic site in 2025.

According to a Perigee press release, the company’s Blue Whale 1 micro-launcher will be the “first-ever orbital rocket” set off from Esrange. While the spaceport has previously focused its satellite launch capabilities on civilian purposes, its chief executive Charlotta Sund recently said that the installation will likely be utilized for military launches in the future.

Another key pillar of the Swedish space strategy will be to create a portfolio of space-related capabilities and services in line with the country’s “total defense and crisis preparedness” concept.

Carlsson noted that last year the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration acquired Smart-L long-range radars from Thales, which allows the military to detect threats at a range of up to 2,000 kilometers according to the vendor’s website.

“We can use space as part of the solution to find, detect and hit targets or threats with partners,” she said. She added that in Sweden’s quest for new sensors, the country is also cooperating with the Netherlands, which also has the Smart-L radar, to assess further use cases.

The Swedish Air Force additionally signed a Space Situational Awareness sharing agreement with the U.S. Space Command in 2022, with the Scandinavian country most recently participating in the U.S-led Global Sentinel space exercise in February.