Bundeswehr space chief Michael Traut is sure aliens exist but names Russia as the real threat

A conviction about other life

Michael Traut, a 61-year-old major general in the German air force, leads the Bundeswehr space command. In an interview with the magazine Stern, he said he is completely convinced that other life forms exist somewhere out in space. He had voiced a similar view in a June interview with Tagesspiegel, where he said the Bundeswehr assumes any intelligent life elsewhere would come in peace. Asked about scientists who argue that some near-Earth objects are alien spacecraft, he said he does not agree with them.

“I am absolutely certain that there are other life forms out there.”

Man-made threats come first

Traut does not see aliens as a military concern. He said the armed forces must first prepare for threats created by people, adding that there are already plenty of them. Because of the sheer size of the universe, he considers it unlikely that the Bundeswehr would ever make contact with extraterrestrials. Among the human-made dangers he lists space debris, which can damage or destroy working satellites, alongside hostile activity by states.

“We must first prepare for man-made threats. And there are already enough of them.”

Russia as the named threat

Russia is the danger Traut names concretely. He says Moscow is already able to destroy foreign satellites in orbit. According to Spiegel, he added that for a few years now the question has been whether Russia is working on a nuclear device to place in orbit. When the interviewer pointed out that the Outer Space Treaty forbids such a step, Traut asked who could impose sanctions on Russia, and whether the UN Security Council could. He also cites GPS jamming by Moscow in the Baltic region, which complicates civil aviation and shipping. In February 2022, at the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia attacked the Viasat satellite communications network, disrupting links there, and Kyiv then began using Starlink.

“Yes, but: who can sanction Russia? The UN Security Council?”

A close approach in orbit

Around the middle of October, a Russian satellite came within 200 metres of a radar satellite that Ukraine may also use. Experts cited by Spiegel see a new escalation step in orbit, and it remains unclear whether the manoeuvre was an attack or only intimidation. In an April interview with Spiegel, Traut said space had never been peaceful. He also said his command is to be able to plan and carry out its own attacks in space in the future.

The command in Uedem

The Bundeswehr space command was set up in 2021 at Uedem on the Lower Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia, and Traut is its first head. It brings together all of the armed forces' space activities, from monitoring space debris and hostile satellites to protecting the army's own satellites. Its core tasks include producing a space situational picture, which means tracking what happens in orbit and judging whether it threatens German security. The Bundeswehr also wants its own secure communications, so that military operations do not depend on a single private company. The chart below sets the command's history beside the satellite events described in the reporting.