Finland will open military space centre to track satellites

Finland’s Defence Forces will open a space operations centre early next year at Tikkakoski, Jyväskylä, Yle reported. Its first task will be to build a picture of activity in space, including which satellites are there, where they are moving and what they can see.

Air Force commander and Defence Forces space commander Timo Herranen said the centre would also operate Finland’s own satellites from April 2027. Finland has three synthetic aperture radar satellites supplied by Finnish company Iceye and launched last year and this year.

Finland took part this week in a test of shared use of reconnaissance satellites, even though the centre is not yet officially operational. Herranen said Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands also took part, and that the countries showed they could jointly use information gathered and shared by a fleet of more than 20 satellites.

Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen said Finland had invited other European countries to join the Iceye satellite effort by acquiring their own satellites. The Nordic countries, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands are already part of the coalition, he said. Finland also hopes to bring in Japan and Australia.

Satellites have become critical to both everyday life and national defence. Herranen cited Russia’s long history in space and its ability to monitor and disrupt other countries’ satellites. In October, a Russian Cosmos satellite flew unusually close to a Finnish Iceye radar satellite.

Herranen said the incident showed Russia was willing to carry out hostile operations. Finland is seeking close cooperation with its allies to respond to such threats, he said.