EU'S Borrell warns space will become a battlefield

BRUSSELS, Jan 24 (KUNA) -- European Union High Representative Josep Borrell Tuesday warned that "space will become a kind of battlefield, a place where competition and confrontation will take place." In a speech at the 15th European Space Conference in Brussels, he noted that last year, governments around the world allocated around USD 100 billion to space.
"There are about 5,500 satellites in orbit today. 10% of them - a little bit less than 10% are owned and operated by the world's military. 10%, or almost, of all the satellites belong to the military," he said.
"But many others are dual-use: they are being used both by civilian and military users, and they provide critical information to support our security and defence.
"We know that our phones depend on the space services, but how many of our critical infrastructures. Things that we need and if they fail, our entire life, the entire system of our economies and societies will be affected," argued the EU foreign policy chief.
He said that satellite imagery and communications have proved to be game changers for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and for the entire population.
Borrell noted that the EU Satellite Centre in Torrejon (Spain), remains a key geospatial intelligence provider.
"And I can tell you, during this war (in Ukraine) we benefited a lot from the information provided by this Satellite Centre. It has been our common eyes from the space to see what is happening on the ground," he said.
"Last year, it provided us with over 4,500 geospatial intelligence products, which means 10 times more compared to 12 years ago.
The theme of this year's Conference is "Security of the future in Europe in Space", he said, concluding "without security in space, there will not be security on Earth. We will not be secure if we do not control what is happening in outer space". (end) nk.hb