APOGEE STAFF
Amid growing recognition that space superiority drives all-domain superiority, satellite ground stations and radio telescopes are emerging as top security concerns as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) expands its presence across Latin America. The PRC insists that space-related centers it has developed in half a dozen countries across the region serve only peaceful purposes. But pivoting them to military use seems a likelier prospect now that the PRC is accelerating its overarching strategy of military-civil fusion (MCF), integrating and leveraging science technology and innovations across both sectors.
Speaking in October 2022 at the Chinese Communist Party congress, party General Secretary Xi Jinping urged his nation’s institutions to knock down the walls hindering what he calls MCF “deep fusion” to advance his goal of assuming global leadership as a socialist superpower.
At the same time, the United States is expanding its space defense partnerships with militaries across Latin America, signing space situational agreements with a half-dozen of them since 2018 to share information on such matters as launches and objects in orbit. U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) aims to partner with still more countries in the region, U.S. Army Gen. James H. Dickinson, then commander, told the Atlantic Council in March 2022. What’s more, South American military representatives are regular participants in recurring space-related training and conferences presented by U.S. commands.
U.S. Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander of Miami-based U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), highlighted the contrast between the approaches of the two nations during testimony before Congress in March 2023, saying the U.S. is showing itself to be a true partner while the PRC pursues a more transactional path. The command’s area of responsibility (AOR) covers 31 countries in South America, Central America and much of the Caribbean, Richardson said. “While the PRC consistently works to expand its network of military space infrastructure across the AOR, we are focused on strengthening relationships with our allies and partners through sustained engagement and investment. … This strategy, coupled with continued exposure of the military purpose of the PRC’s scientific or academic space sites in the region, may slow and possibly reverse the expansion of the PRC’s space network in our neighborhood.”
The space domain represents one part of a changing dynamic across Latin America as the PRC rapidly expands its influence in the region. Now the top trading partner in some Latin American nations, the PRC has risen to No. 2 overall in the region, behind only the U.S. The massive One Belt, One Road Initiative (OBOR) is the mechanism for much of the PRC’s expansion, funding billions of dollars’ worth of seaports, highways, railways and other infrastructure projects. This investment is quickening as Latin America struggles to recover from a disproportionate economic hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 31 SOUTHCOM nations, 21 have signed onto the OBOR initiative, Richardson told the U.S.-based think tank the Atlantic Council in January 2023.
When the decade-old initiative reached Latin America five years ago, some analysts suggested that the U.S. government and U.S. companies should engage with the OBOR initiative because of its potential to bring stability to the region and so they might help shape the outcome in areas such as transparency, debt load and environmental safeguards. But while acknowledging these potential benefits, a March 2021 report on the development scheme from the Council on Foreign Relations found it “likely that the costs will considerably outweigh the benefits for the United States,” raising participating countries’ debt levels “to an unsustainable extent.” Another concern, according the independent, New York-based think tank: OBOR projects are tied to Chinese contractors and conducted through a largely closed bidding process, excluding firms from many other countries.
An alarm was sounded in February 2019 over PRC influence in space during congressional testimony from U.S. Navy Adm. Craig Faller, then the SOUTHCOM commander. The subject was the Espacio Lejano (“far space”) ground station in the Patagonia region of Argentina, a powerful, 16-story antenna that became operational in 2018 for the stated purpose of scientific research and that is said to have played a key role in the 2019 Chinese landing on the far side of the moon. But a new Argentina administration came up short when it sought to revisit its contract to host the antenna and require in writing that it be used for civilian purposes only, Reuters reported in the month before Faller’s testimony. The original contract stands, with its stipulation that the host nation “not interfere [with] or interrupt” PRC activities at the station, and regional leaders say Argentina exercises no oversight there. This has fueled speculation of spying and other military activity there, the Washington, D.C.- based policy group Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported in October 2022. “Beijing … may have the ability to monitor and potentially target U.S., allied, and partner space activities,” Faller told the House Armed Services Committee.
Faller, now teaching international affairs at Florida International University in Miami, called himself an “alarmist” on PRC influence in Latin America when he spoke during the university’s annual Hemispheric Security Conference in May 2022. The retired admiral singled out for concern the growing use across Latin America of 5G telecommunication equipment made by Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., the multinational technology giant based in Shenzhen and heavily financed by the Chinese government. Land-based antenna connect 5G devices today, but systems are expected to transition to orbiting satellites. The U.S. has moved to curb use of products made by Huawei, which still dominates the global market. In response, the company has doubled down on emerging regions such as Latin America, where it has moved beyond smartphones and radio to cloud computing, digital transformation, solar equipment and talent training, according to analysis in 2021 by the California-based DellOro Group. This is especially evident in Brazil, the region’s largest country. Brazil also partners with the PRC on an earth-observation program, whose sixth satellite was the subject of an agreement signed in April 2023 during a visit to Shanghai and Beijing by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As commander of SOUTHCOM, Faller said he never asked Latin American leaders to choose between the U.S. and China. “But there’s got to be lines drawn when it comes to relationships with China and that’s got to include the IT space,” he said. Latin American countries are at risk if they “cede the … technical backbone of 5G to China because everything in China is state run and all that information is being fed back. … We’ve got to do more to eliminate why that is so, and still deal with the economic might of China in a positive way. That is the complex security question of our time.”
The PRC has also taken a keen interest in expanding its access and control of the space domain, viewing it as the ultimate high ground. There are at least 10 PRC-linked space facilities across five countries in the [South America] region, the most PRC space-enabling infrastructure outside mainland China.”
~ U.S. Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson United States Army, USSOUTHCOM
A CSIS report in October 2022 features the Espacio Lejano station and maps out what it calls “China’s growing space footprint in South America,” pinpointing 11 installations — most of them satellite ground stations — with links to the PRC. They are in Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile and Brazil. The report describes how many might serve as “dual-purpose” installations, for military and civilian use. One reason for concern: While space defense and civilian programs cooperate with one another at many levels in the U.S. and among its allies, the PRC’s main civilian space agency — the China National Space Administration — falls under the shadow of the nation’s military: the Strategic Support Force of the People’s Liberation Army (PLASSF), CSIS reported. “The PLA’s prominence within China’s domestic space industry has flamed fears that its influence extends to overseas ground stations dotted across the globe,” the report said. These stations are key components in the telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) functions that enable the operation of satellites and other spacecraft. What’s more, Espacio Lejano is operated by a sub-entity of the PLASSF that manages ground infrastructure for China’s space operations and is staffed by PLA personnel, raising further suspicions about military use of the station, CSIS reported. Ground stations operated by any country with advanced space programs can often be turned toward dual use, “but China is particularly reticent about its operations at overseas ground stations,” according to the report, “stoking fears about its intentions.”
Leading spacefaring nations, most of them in the northern hemisphere, turn to Latin America to help fill gaps in space operations. The chief launch site of the European Space Agency is the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. Some 1,200 kilometers southeast lies the Alcântara Space Center in Brazil, where a March 2023 test launch helped advance plans by space startup Innospace to become South Korea’s first private launch-service provider. Both sites are a few degrees from the equator, where rockets can take maximum advantage of the Earth’s rotational speed. Sitting on a launch pad here, they already are moving at a speed of over 1,650 kilometers per hour relative to the Earth’s center, according to NASA. Depending on the mission, this means a rocket can carry less fuel or more payload than it would during a launch away from the equator. In addition, a number of government and commercial interests – not just the PRC – are building satellite ground stations in Latin America to achieve a web of coverage around the planet, for uses that may range from internet broadband to intelligence gathering. One example: California-based LeoLabs, providing commercial and orbital mapping services, announced in March 2023 that it will build its next space radar site at the southern tip of South America in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Another company, Kongsberg Satellite Services of Norway, provides earth observation data through a network that includes four ground stations in Central and South America. In addition, Richardson noted in her congressional testimony that the 11 PRC ground stations in South America amount to more PRC stations than in any other continent on Earth.
Developments in space operations across Latin America are of special interest to the U.S. because the region reaches the nation’s doorstep, Richardson said. She noted that from SOUTHCOM’s Miami headquarters, she can fly to 80% of her AOR in two hours – about the same time it takes to reach Washington, D.C. “When I see tentacles … so close to the United States, it very much concerns me,” she told the Atlantic Council in a January 2023 interview. Using a football analogy, Richardson called Latin America and the Caribbean the U.S. “red zone.” Examples abound of efforts by USSPACEOM and other military commands to build space defense relationships in the nearby region. Dickinson has pointed during interviews to a deepening partnership with the Chilean Air Force, which sent representatives to Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado, in November 2021 to take part in the Sprint Advanced Concept Training (SACT) series. The Chileans joined with the command’s Joint Task Force-Space Defense (JTF-SD) and SOUTHCOM’s Air Forces South in conducting simulated space launches and tracking to help protect space-based assets. “Chile’s geography is fantastic for critical South Pole coverage of objects in low earth orbit,” said Maj. Nick Snyder, then with the JTF-SD. “We look forward to a very bright future with our neighbors to the south.” The Chilean Air Force has announced plans for a “new space age” with the launch of 10 satellites through 2025. Armed forces from both Chile and Brazil are among those who took part in the 2022 SACT series.
Militaries from Brazil and Peru joined 23 other nations during the Global Sentinel event in summer 2022, conducted by USSPACECOM to strengthen and grow international partnerships, improve operational collaboration and promote responsible behavior in space. Members of the New York Air National Guard’s 222nd Command and Control Squadron conducted space operations with their Brazilian counterparts during Global Sentinel 2022 and in visits to Brazil, the squadron said in a news release. Global Sentinel 2024 took place in February. Strengthening partnerships also was the goal of the Space Conference of the Americas hosted in Miami by SOUTHCOM during January 2023 and attended by representatives from nine Latin American nations — Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Mexico. “This is the first conference of this magnitude that we are attending, so it is very important for Paraguay,” said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Oscar Santa Cruz, commander of the nation’s Air Regions Command, as reported by the SOUTHCOM magazine Diálogo Americas. “This conference could mean the creation of what could be a space command for the Paraguayan Air Force.” In addition, Dickinson told the magazine, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory conducts research in South America “to advocate for good stewardship in the space environment and work with our South American partners to develop space integration into their civil and military operations.” In an April 2022 interview with the magazine, Dickinson noted that U.S. space capabilities have been employed to help Latin American partners counter Chinese illegal fishing in regional waters, and to respond to and preparing for events such as oil spills, deforestation, environmental crimes and wildfires.
STAFF SGT. DON HUDSON/U.S. AIR FORCE
Latin American nations are trying to catch up as they seek help abroad with space defense, said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Joseph Guzman, writing in 2021 for the Air University quarterly magazine Journal of the Americas. Only Oceania has spent less on space exploration among the regions of the world, according to Guzman’s research, and no Latin American nations are represented among some 129 companies and seven universities that have reached space situational agreements with USSPACECOM. Still, data from the United Nations shows seven Latin American nations can launch satellites, and Guzman said most countries in the region have seen exponential growth in technology and space development in the last two decades. Argentina has installed ground stations in Antarctica to serve earth observation satellites. The space programs in Argentina and Brazil were established as far back as 1960. Starting with the Space Summit of the Americas in 2006, efforts have been made to establish a regional space agency modeled on the European Space Agency, according to a January 2022 report by the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. The efforts resulted in the creation of the seven-nation Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency (ALCE) in September 2021, spearheaded by Argentina and Mexico.
Asked by Diálogo Americas about the biggest challenges for Latin America in space, Dickinson cited the cost of developing and operating a national space program. He drew his own contrast with the PRC as he reiterated the U.S. commitment to encourage the peaceful use of space and to engage in partnerships “that are rooted in the common value of responsible, transparent, and safe behavior, preventing other countries from exploiting a host nation for its own gain.”