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

Australia's defence minister said on Tuesday a defence satellite program was scrapped since of the threat of brand-new innovation 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 job with Lockheed Martin that was to provide Australia's first sovereign-controlled satellite interaction system over the Indo-Pacific ocean regions.

Defence Minister Richard Marles stated on Tuesday the federal government had actually abandoned the plan to have two or 3 geosynchronous satellites above Australia to deliver defence communications since the system designed 8 years ago was out of date.

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

Marles cited the use of Starlink above Ukraine and stated Australia needs to develop defence communications that are distributed, more durable and cost efficient.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have actually utilized Starlink terminals sold by Elon Musk's SpaceX Aerospace business for communications during the Ukraine dispute.

Defence workers minister Matt Keogh stated in a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Australia wished to develop a mesh type plan of satellites, which offers higher strength.

(source: Reuters)