With Sweden joining NATO, the Atlantic Alliance will soon be able to count on a different and better defense system in the northern quadrant of Europe. It is no coincidence that at the beginning of this month, the Swedish government approved the country’s first space defense and security strategy, an act that aims to make Stockholm a space hub for the allies and demonstrates the current government’s desire to affirm the Scandinavian nation as a key player in the international space domain, by virtue of its strategic position and its technological research and development capabilities. Colonel Ella Carlsson, number one of the military space agency, told reporters: “We may be newcomers to NATO, but we have been doing space research for several decades and we immediately asked ourselves what gap we can fill in the Alliance regarding the space domain.” In the region of the city of Kiruna, in the north of the country, stands the Esrange Space Center (Esp), used as a center for scientific research with sounding balloons and a launch base for small space vehicles. Two years ago, the government in Stockholm decided to transform it into a launch pad for various types of rockets to carry out research and tests on rocket engines and fuels. Last May, the Swedish Space Corporation, the national industry in the sector, announced that it had signed an agreement with the South Korean rocket company Perigee Aerospace to start jointly launching satellites from the Arctic site starting in 2025. According to a press release from the Asian company, it would be the Blue Whale 1 micro-launcher, which will be the first orbital rocket ever to launch from the Esp. This is a two-stage, fully reusable vector, 21 meters high and 1.6 meters in diameter, built in composite materials (carbon, Kevlar), weighing about twenty tons and with a payload of 150 kg. To generate thrust, it uses liquid oxygen and methane, emitting a limited amount of emissions compared to competitors.
Confirmation of the intention to develop the facility for NATO operations also comes from the director and CEO of the center Carlotta Sund, who stated that the Swedish spaceport, although it has so far concentrated its activities on being able to carry out satellite launches for civilian purposes, will probably also be used for military launches in the future. On this front, another fundamental pillar of the Swedish space strategy will be the creation of a portfolio of space capabilities and services in line with the concept of “total defense and crisis preparedness”. Moreover, in his meeting with the press, Colonel Carlsson noted that last year the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (the equivalent of our Armaereo) acquired the Smart-L long-range radars from Thales, devices that allow the Army to detect threats up to a distance of 2,000 kilometers. The senior Swedish officer explained: “We can use the spaceport as a resource to find, detect and hit targets or threats by sharing data with partners and allies; in fact, in the research of new sensors and systems we are also collaborating with the Netherlands that operates precisely that type of radar and that can constitute the link of a larger and more widespread defense network. Furthermore, in 2022 the Swedish Air Force had signed an agreement for the sharing of “space situational awareness” with the United States Space Command, thus participating in the Global Sentinel exercise led by the US Defense that took place last February.
