Australia scrapped satellite because new tech could 'shoot it out of sky', says defence minister


FILE PHOTO: Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles attends a tour of the Sheffield Forgemasters site, where steel used in defence programmes including a future fleet of nuclear-armed submarines is manufactured, in Sheffield, Britain, July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja/Pool/File Photo

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's defence minister said on Tuesday a defence satellite program was scrapped because of the threat of new technology that can "shoot satellites out of the sky", and Canberra instead wants to use a mesh of micro satellites for defence communications.

Australia's Department of Defence said on Monday it cancelled a multi-billion dollar Geostationary Earth Orbit satellite project with Lockheed Martin that was to deliver Australia's first sovereign-controlled satellite communication system over the Indo-Pacific ocean regions.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Tuesday the government had abandoned the plan to have two or three geosynchronous satellites above Australia to deliver defence communications because the system designed eight years ago was out of date.

"Since then, we've seen technologies develop which can literally shoot satellites out of the sky. But we've also seen technologies develop where you have thousands of micro satellites in a much more distributed way providing the same effect," he said in a television interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Marles cited the use of Starlink above Ukraine and said Australia needs to develop defence communications that are distributed, more resilient and cost effective.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have used Starlink terminals sold by Elon Musk's SpaceX Aerospace company for communications during the Ukraine conflict.

Defence personnel minister Matt Keogh said in a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Australia wanted to develop "a mesh type arrangement of satellites, which provides greater resilience".

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

   

Next In Tech News

You may have blocked someone on X but now they can see your public posts anyway
Japan taps US chip startup Tenstorrent to help train new wave of engineers
Chinese AI firms are splurging on ads, report finds, as chatbot market gets crowded
Data of over 148,000 people leaked after ransomware attack on 2 Hong Kong hearing centres
Woman kidnapped by ex rescued after friend tracks her with Find My iPhone, US cops say
Instagram plans to use AI to catch teens lying about age
World's first wooden satellite, developed in Japan, heads to space
This humanoid robot can now operate with full autonomy
Scientists use AI to help track penguins in Antarctica
Windows 10 users will soon have to pay to keep getting security updates

Others Also Read