NATO increases satellite surveillance of Russia

NATO is expanding its satellite surveillance to monitor Russia’s actions by engaging Planet Labs.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Pierre Vandier, the commander-in-chief of NATO’s Transformation Force, shared that the Alliance is increasing its satellite monitoring capabilities to cover more areas.

According to him, the new tool will allow NATO to track military movements both on the territory of Ukraine and along Russia’s borders with Eastern Europe.

“Today, we are not sure that the Russians will stop at Ukraine. We can tell them: we see you,” Vandier emphasized.

According to the agency, NATO has announced that an American satellite imagery provider, Planet Labs, has been selected to implement the initiative.

The new project is called Smart Indication And Warning Broad Area Detection (SINBAD).

Its goal is to frequently monitor large areas of the planet throughout the year using artificial intelligence to detect changes and automatically generate warnings.

According to one of the Alliance’s representatives, who spoke to the agency, this technology can also be used to monitor the Arctic, a region that is gaining in strategic importance as Russia and China’s interests grow.

What we know about Planet Labs

Planet Labs is an American private company specializing in satellite imagery.

The company became known for creating the largest constellation of small satellites in orbit, which photographs the entire surface of the planet on a daily basis. Planet Labs launches and operates small satellites known as Dove.

Since 2022, the company has been actively cooperating with Ukraine, providing satellite imagery to the Armed Forces, government, journalists, and analysts, particularly in the field of OSINT.

Their images are regularly used in analytical reports on Russian aggression, destroyed infrastructure, movement of equipment, etc.