Germany eyes lasers, spy satellites in military space spending splurge

Germany is weighing investments ranging from spy satellites and space planes to offensive lasers under a 35 billion euro ($41 billion) military space spending plan aimed at countering growing threats from Russia and China in orbit, the country's space commander said.

Germany will build an encrypted military constellation of more than 100 satellites, known as SATCOM Stage 4, over the next few years, the head of German Space Command Michael Traut told Reuters on the sidelines of a space event ahead of the Singapore Airshow.

He said the network would mirror the model used by the U.S. Space Development Agency, a Pentagon unit that deploys low-Earth-orbit satellites for communications and missile tracking.

Rheinmetall RHMG.DE is in talks with German satellite maker OHB OHBG.DE about a joint bid for an unnamed German military satellite project, Reuters reported last week.

The potential deal comes as Europe's top three space firms - Airbus AIR.PA, Thales TCFP.PA and Leonardo LDOF.MI - are seeking to build a European satellite communications alternative to Elon Musk's Starlink.

Traut said Germany's investment in military space architecture reflected a sharply more contested space environment since Russia's full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Berlin and its European allies, he said, needed to bolster their deterrence posture by investing not only in secure communications but also in capabilities that could hinder or disable hostile space systems.

"(We need to) improve our deterrence posture in space, since space has become an operational or even warfighting domain, and we are perfectly aware that our systems, our space capabilities, need to be protected and defended,” Traut said.

INSPECTOR SATELLITES AND LASERS

Germany will channel funding into intelligence‑gathering satellites, sensors and systems designed to disrupt adversary spacecraft, including lasers and equipment capable of targeting ground-based infrastructure, Traut said.

He added that Germany would prioritise small and large domestic and European suppliers for the programme.

Traut emphasised Germany would not field destructive weapons in orbit that could generate debris, but said a range of non-kinetic options existed to disrupt hostile satellites, including jamming, lasers and actions against ground control stations.

He also pointed to so-called inspector satellites — small spacecraft capable of maneuvering close to other satellites — which he said Russia and China had already deployed.

"There is a broad range of possible effects in the electromagnetic spectrum, in the optical, in the laser spectrum, and even some active physical things like inspector satellites," he said.

"You could even go after ground segments of a space system in order to deny that system to your adversary or to tell him, 'If you do something to us in space, we might do something to you in other domains as well.'”

($1 = 0.8477 euros)

-Reporting by Joe Brock; Editing by Jamie Freed/Reuters