Bulletin 14 - "Bridging Efforts" Special Bulletin - European Defence ...

Increasing Responsiveness for Civil and Security Actors –
The Space Dimension in Support of Crisis Management
Mr. Giuseppe Morsillo, Head of the Director-General’s Policy Office, European Space Agency (ESA)
“We need a holistic
approach - which
implies not only making
best use of existing
civilian systems for
crisis management
actors at large but
conceiving capabilities
and the related space
contribution in a
comprehensive civilmilitary
approach.”
Mr. Giuseppe Morsillo,
Head of the Director-General’s
Policy Office, European Space
Agency (ESA)
Mr. Giuseppe Morsillo detailed the progressive
development of a European
Space Policy, building notably on close relations
established between the European
Space Agency and the European
Commission since the adoption of a
Framework Agreement in 2003. Within
the European Space Policy of 2007, 29
EU and ESA Member States agreed on
common strategic objectives, including
‘Meeting European Security and Defence
Needs’.
Already today the major stakeholders
regarding the civil and defence dimension
of space-related programmes,
would regularly meet in the framework
of the ‘Structured Dialogue on Space
and Security’, involving the European
Commission, the EU Council, ESA and
EDA. Further opportunities of cooperation
would exist with regard to the ‘European
Framework Cooperation’ on which EDA
had been mandated.
Several programmatic activities had
been developed since, among them
Galileo (satellite navigation) and GMES
(Global Monitoring for Environment and
Security) as “civilian systems under civilian
control which may have military users”.
Another activity in the area of Data
Relay shall enable the delivery of more
real-time information, thereby avoiding
that telecommunication means become
the ‘bottleneck’ for collecting, processing
and disseminating the information where
and whenever needed. A European Data
Relay System would thereby not only link
with satellites but would need to take account
of aircraft and UAS. Integrating UAS
into the airspace would mean having the
necessary communication infrastructure
available at European level.
Mr. Morsillo highlighted further the contribution
space can make to today’s crisis
management operations and missions,
referring to the International Charter for
Space and Major Disaster. The Charter
had led to several space agencies putting
in place a pragmatic system of space data
acquisition and delivery at the disposal of
various stakeholders in the event of a crisis,
most recently in support of the 2010
Haiti earthquake.
Major topics of cooperation
between the civil
and security/defence side
regarding space to date:
• Critical Space Technologies
for European non-dependence
• Civil-Military synergies regarding
Earth Observation
• Space Situational Awareness
• Space services for UAS
• Maritime Surveillance
Looking ahead, Mr. Morsillo pointed at
the further potential of space applications
to be fully exploited: so far, space
programmes had been developed focusing
on specific thematic domains
such as Earth Observation, Navigation or
Telecommunication. Synergies among the
different areas had to be fostered in order
to respond to user needs in terms of enhanced
‘responsiveness’ and timeliness
of information acquisition and distribution
- an aspect highlighted by both civil
and military users in crisis management
operations and explicitly targeted in the
European Commission’s ESRIF report.
This would involve reflecting on Systems
of Systems and architectural concepts,
taking into account ‘interoperability’ aspects
with defence actors and the need to
integrate the space dimension with other
technologies.
Beyond the issues of ‘responsiveness’,
Europe would also need to reflect on its
dependency on non-European sources,
given that a variety of space-based security
services are available to European
security actors but the majority are not
under European control.
The current Spanish Presidency, the upcoming
Belgian Presidency as well as the
next financial perspectives would represent
opportunities for the EU Council, the
European Commission, ESA an EDA to
reflect on conceiving European infrastructures
and services so that they fully respond
to the large core of similar needs of civil
and military actors in crisis management.
“Space delivers but we
have large margins for
improvement within
the space community
and in integrating
space technologies and
applications into wider
Systems of Systems.”
Mr. Giuseppe Morsillo,
Head of the Director-General’s
Policy Office, European Space
Agency (ESA)
32 EDA Special Bulletin : Bridging Efforts | 9 February 2010 |