The Atlantic Imperative: Space, Maritime Security and the Infrastructure That Cannot Fail

The Atlantic Ocean is the artery of Western civilisation. It carries the trade, the data, and the defence relationships that underpin everything from financial markets to military command. It is also increasingly contested - and the incidents that have exposed the vulnerability of undersea cables, critical shipping lanes, and maritime infrastructure have made one thing clear: only space-based systems can monitor, protect, and secure this corridor at the scale and speed the threat demands. This session brings together the space agencies of Atlantic-facing nations to examine how space power is being deployed to meet the challenge. From persistent maritime surveillance and domain awareness to climate monitoring, search and rescue, and the dual-use technologies that serve both commercial operators and defence commands, the panel will address what a credible Atlantic space architecture looks like - and what it will take to build one. The conversation is urgent. The domain is contested. The infrastructure is at risk. And the solutions are, increasingly, overhead.