WEB DESK
NATO leaders have expanded the use of their all for one, one for all, mutual defense clause to include a collective response to attacks in space. Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty states that an attack on any one of the 30 allies will be considered an attack on them all. Until now, it’s only applied to more traditional military attacks on land, sea, or in the air, and more recently in cyberspace. In a summit statement on Monday, the leaders said they “consider that attacks to, from, or within space” could be a challenge to NATO that threatens national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security, and stability, and could be as harmful to modern societies as a conventional attack.
Around 2,000 satellites orbit the earth, over half are operated by NATO countries.
In December 2019, NATO leaders declared space to be the alliance’s “fifth domain” of operations, after land, sea, air and cyberspace. Around 80 countries have satellites, and private companies are moving in, too.