Radioflash! Episode 12: Space to Think

The importance of space as a domain of warfare is deepening. Since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s, militaries have exploited space for communications, espionage and strategic attack. Despite the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, military demand for space is as strong as ever. The assertiveness of the People’s Republic of China and Russia is making space ever more strategically important. Expanding global military interest in the cosmos is impacting the electromagnetic environment. Actors seek to preserve access to their space-based assets while denying this to their rivals. In this latest episode of the Radioflash! podcast we are joined by Juliana Suess, a research fellow studying space security at the Royal United Services Institute defence and security thinktank in London. We discuss counterpace weapons, both kinetic and electronic, and their long history. The influence of cyberwarfare as a counterspace weapon also falls under our gaze. We examine the changing nature of counterspace warfare and the fact that attacks may no longer only be the preserve of nation states. We tackle the use of space Electronic Warfare (EW) during the ongoing war in Ukraine, and Russian capabilities. Moreover, the influence of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) jamming forms part of our discussion. We also talk about the steps that state and non-state actors can take to reduce their risks from space EW.