Communications News

Australia-China space capability gap ‘concerning’

Eliza Sayon Mar 23, 2022

2 min read

Australia’s inaugural space commander Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts stated that the country needs to accelerate its space capability in the face of threats from countries like Russia and China.

The country’s capability gap against threats posed by China in the frontier of space has been labelled concerning.

According to Air Vice-Marshal Roberts, Australia will need to expand its own space capacity despite being able to rely on strong allies like the United States to combat China’s growing capabilities.

“The lack of capability at the moment against those threats is concerning,” the air vice-marshal told reporters at an air and space conference.

“We’re really tight with the US, we’re really tight with their (combined space operations) partners. So, we can rely on them to an extent but we need to accelerate the capability so that we can deal with the threats.”

Russia’s shooting down of one of its defunct satellites and China’s towing of a dead satellite into a “graveyard orbit” have raised concerns about potential future conflicts as an attack against a satellite or its connection to the ground could wipe out communications, navigation systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, banking and the internet.

“Ukraine is a good example of where space becomes very contested, and people are very reliant on if they want to do those military operations,” Air Vice-Marshal Roberts said.

Australia, through its new defence space command, will focus on upholding the free use of space.

Director-General of the Air Force’s Space Domain Review Air Commodore Nick Hogan says the most important thing in the realm of space remains to be able to see what’s happening.

This ensures Australia doesn’t lose access to space and the crucial telecommunication systems it hosts due to collisions with debris.

“If I use an example of an air traffic control, there’s no space traffic control. So no one really regulates what’s going on there,” he said.

“Our intent is to make sure that anything that we put up from a civil or a military or government perspective, we can protect it. And to protect it, we need to know what is coming toward it.”

However, Air Commodore Hogan states that further defence mechanisms are needed as space expands the grey zone area of operations.

Ground infrastructure also needs to be protected, which includes hardening cyber defence systems which link to satellites as it becomes cheaper for nefarious actors to operate in the cyber and space realms.

“We’re always getting cyber attacks and they come from a variety of sources. That hasn’t gone to space yet in terms of that amount of access,” Air Commodore Hogan said.

“But it’s getting a lot cheaper to get access to space. So it’s just a matter of time until you see separatist groups or violent extremist groups that want to exploit space.”

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says Australian space power will be used to deter aggression, rather than generate a new realm for conflict.

Coercion and belligerence from countries such as Russia and China have reinforced the need for hard power to both defend against, and deter, such aggression, he said.

With AAP

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.