Counterspace capabilities that can degrade, destroy or disrupt other systems once were the province of only the largest space superpowers: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Russia and the United States. But as space has become more essential for both military operations and daily life on Earth, the collection of militaries protecting assets in the highest domain is growing.
Just five years ago, the nonprofit Secure World Foundation’s (SWF) annual Counterspace Capabilities Report examined eight spacefaring militaries that were deploying counterspace assets. By 2025, the SWF report had grown to 12 nations, with the rapidly developing space programs of Australia, France and India making the list’s top half-dozen.
“The space domain is undergoing a significant set of changes,” the 2025 SWF report states. “A growing number of countries and commercial actors are getting involved in space, resulting in more innovation and benefits on Earth, but also more congestion and competition in space.”
From a security perspective, the report states, more countries are looking to enhance their military capabilities and national security with counterspace capabilities that can “deceive, disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy space systems.”
Australia, France and India are building their own policy frameworks and counterspace assets with a mixture of maturing space alliances and homegrown ingenuity.
Australia transcends from support role
The report describes Australia as a relative newcomer to space, although it has long played a support role by hosting ground infrastructure for satellite communications and command and control. Recently, Australia has been laying the groundwork for more domestic space capabilities. In 2022, Australia created the Defence Space Command, which since has been renamed Space Command. Australia is “building out a policy framework for its military space priorities, is putting concerted efforts and resources into building its own SSA [space situational awareness] capabilities, is examining an EW [electronic warfare] capability for its Department of Defence, and is looking into non-destructive ways in which to interfere with enemy satellites,” the SWF report states.
Australia, one expert contends, entered the global counterspace competition with some trepidation. “Australia has been reluctant to go down the path of counterspace, but has come to recognize that space governance and space law alone won’t necessarily constrain the actions of adversaries prior to, or at the outset of a war, or prevent gray zone actions in space that could deny Australia and its allies access to vital space support,” Malcolm Davis, senior analyst for defense strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Apogee.
Australia has deep connections with space defense officials in the United States. In 2017, the U.S.-made Space Surveillance Telescope was dismantled at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and moved to the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Exmouth, Western Australia.
Australia also is a partner in the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) project with the United Kingdom. DARC is an all-weather, global radar system that can track small objects in geostationary orbit about 35,800 kilometers above Earth. Military experts say this capability is crucial for protecting critical satellite service for communications, defense and navigation. The project is the result of a partnership involving the U.S. Space Force, the U.K. Ministry of Defence and the Australian Department of Defence. The first DARC site in Western Australia was completed in December 2024, and the network eventually will include locations in the U.K. and the U.S.
Australia also is considering a range of space control capabilities to support deterrence with its Five Eyes alliance partners and from within the Combined Space Operations Initiative, which consists of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the U.K. and the U.S.
Davis said that while Australia is pursuing counterspace capabilities, it is building only nondestructive assets. “Any space control capability we eventually acquire will be nondestructive, soft kill, with the aim being for scalable and reversible effects to deny or degrade rather than physically destroy,” Davis said. “The goal is to strengthen deterrence by denial and deterrence through resilience against adversaries that have counterspace capability. Australia is also developing the architecture of its space capability through proliferated small satellite constellations across multiple orbital regimes, rather than investing in small numbers of large and complex satellites.”
Policy framework updates are supporting Australia’s efforts. Davis points out that the Australian National Defence Strategy and Integrated Investment Program released in 2024 made clear that the Department of Defence will consider “measures to enhance Defence’s space control capability to deny attempts to interfere with, or attack, Australia’s use of the space domain.”
French momentum
Also in the top half of the countries listed on the SWF report is France, which has long had a space program and military satellites. But it was “not until recently that France had an explicit focus on offensive and defensive counterspace activities,” the report states.
A big change occurred in July 2019 with the release of the first French Space Defence Strategy, which elevated its military space efforts and control of military satellites. The French Space Defence Strategy focuses on improving situational awareness around space assets and providing them with active defenses. Although some French officials suggested exotic ideas such as machine guns on satellites, the actual plan calls for ground-based lasers for dazzling and satellites for on-orbit inspection.
France’s counterspace pursuits coincide with a deepening relationship with the U.S. In September 2025, the countries announced they were stepping up joint satellite maneuvers to counter the CCP in space.
The announcement of a planned second joint mission of coordinated satellite maneuvers is part of a broader plan to sharpen allied surveillance capabilities as the CCP expands its military footprint in space, Reuters reported. The operation involving France and the U.S. would be the Pentagon’s third known mission conducted in space with an ally after its first-ever joint maneuver with two spacecraft on orbit in 2024, which also involved France. U.S. Space Command conducted a joint mission with the U.K. in 2025.
Like the other countries in the SWF report, France is acknowledging an inescapable fact: Space is now a warfighting domain. “Space is no longer a sanctuary; it has become a battlefield,” French President Emmanuel Macron told military officials at the Space Command center in Toulouse in November 2025, according to an Agence France-Presse report. Macron detailed a litany of aggressive acts by what he termed “powers of aggression.”
To meet the challenge, France is expanding its military space capabilities and accelerating development of what Macron described as active defense systems to protect French satellites and potentially neutralize on-orbit threats. During his speech to military officials, Macron discussed lasers and patrol satellites.
India’s ascension
The top new player in counterspace activity behind the three traditional powers is India, according to the SWF report. Ranked No. 4 in the research group’s 2025 report, India has more than five decades of experience developing space capabilities.
Most of that, however, was focused on civil space. “It is only relatively recently that India has started organizationally making way for its military to become active users of space and creating explicit military space capabilities,” the report states.
In 2019, India joined the small group of nations that have tested an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon when it destroyed a satellite in low Earth orbit during Mission Shakti. The test made India the fourth nation after China, Russia and the U.S. to have tested an ASAT weapon.
While the tests by all four countries generated complaints about the creation of space debris, the Indian government responded that the space junk generated by its ASAT test would disintegrate in a short amount of time.
In terms of counterspace capabilities, however, the test put the world on notice. In addition to possessing offensive capabilities that could destroy another nation’s satellites, India showed its ability to intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile.
India insists it opposes the weaponization of space, although it may be moving toward an offensive counterspace posture, the SWF report states. India is reportedly in the early stages of working on directed energy weapons. And in January 2025, it showcased its ability to maneuver civilian space assets on orbit, marking an important step toward rendezvous and docking technology.
The list of newcomers to the counterspace race reveals an inescapable reality. Everyday life and global commerce are dependent on space. From GPS navigation to global internet coverage and military surveillance, space-based technology is integral to keeping the world’s economies and way of life intact. Because of that, space assets must be defended.
“The existence of counterspace capabilities is not new, but the circumstances surrounding them are,” the SWF report concludes. “Today there are increased incentives for development, and potential use, of offensive counterspace capabilities. There are also greater potential consequences from their widespread use that could have global repercussions well beyond the military, as huge parts of the global economy and society are increasingly reliant on space applications.”