ADF’s space force aims to kill satellites ‘softly’

The ADF’s Space Command is working on a plan to acquire ‘soft-kill’ capabilities to neutralise enemy satellites without creating destructive debris clouds.

The ADF’s Space Commander Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts.

The ADF’s Space Command is working on a plan to acquire “soft-kill” capabilities to neutralise enemy satellites without creating destructive debris clouds, in a major development for the year-old joint service.

Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts, the ADF’s Space Commander, said the push came amid the growing capabilities of potential adversaries, including China and Russia, which have the ability to destroy, disable or move satellites in orbit.

She said Australia needed a “non-destructive” means to protect Australia’s military and civilian satellites, indicating ground-based lasers and electronic warfare capabilities were among the potential options.

“We are working on making sure that we’ve got a level of capability so that we can deter attacks on our satellites, essentially through non-kinetic means, so that we can have some impact,” Air Vice-Marshal Roberts told The Australian during a briefing at the Avalon Airshow in Victoria.

She said she wanted to secure the capability “as soon as I can”.

“It’s certainly one of the capabilities we’re looking really ­closely,” she said.

Space capabilities will lie at the heart of many of the new investments in the defence strategic ­review due to be released in coming weeks. “You need access to space to do the ‘precision-guided’ for the precision-guided weapons; you need it for the intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance; and you need it for the command and control through the satellite communication systems,” Air Vice-Marshal Roberts said.

She said Australia’s place on the globe offered a crucial advantage in deploying “soft-kill” capabilities. “We need to be able to see to protect, and we can see a lot from here,” she said. “That goes for non-kinetic effects from the ground too, because it’s what you can see and where you can effect it.

“I think it’s a really important part of where we go … looking at how we can have that sort of electronic warfare-type of capability to allow us to deter attacks or certainly interfere (with enemy satellites).”

Her comments follow inter­national fury at Russia’s late-2021 missile test that destroyed one of its own satellites, creating a massive debris cloud that forced the International Space Station’s crew to take evasive action.

China’s SJ21 satellite, which used a mechanical arm to shift another of the country’s satellites, also alarmed the West.

Air Vice-Marshal Roberts said China was “very active” in space, making more satellite launches last year than the US.

“I was briefing the Deputy Prime Minister just before Christmas, saying, ‘In the last week 40-odd more (Chinese) satellites went up.’

“They have many, many satellites in orbit and a large percentage of the 8000 satellites that are up there.”

Australian Strategic Policy ­Institute senior analyst Malcolm Davis said “soft kill” was a key capability, allowing threats to be neutralised without endangering friendly space assets.

“So rather than destroying an enemy ASAT (anti-satellite weapon) or satellite and creating a debris field, it disables it, leaving the satellite intact,” he said.

“Soft-kill mechanisms can ­include uplink and downlink jamming, blinding with lasers, use of high-power microwave weapons … to damage or disable a satellite, and also cyber attack.”

Australia has signed a unilateral ban on testing of destructive anti-satellite weapons which physically destroy satellites and create debris fields.

“Russia and China oppose this ban. The soft-kill approach is more usable for defensive space control – to protect our satellites and allied satellites against enemy ASAT attack, and to ensure a ­degree of space control,” Mr Davis said.