SYDNEY, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Australia's defence minister

said on Tuesday a defence satellite program was scrapped because

of the threat of new technology 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 project with Lockheed Martin ( LMT ) that was to

deliver Australia's first sovereign-controlled satellite

communication system over the Indo-Pacific ocean regions.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Tuesday the

government had abandoned the plan to have two or three

geosynchronous satellites above Australia to deliver defence

communications because the system designed eight years ago was

out of date.

"Since then, we've seen technologies develop which can

literally shoot satellites out of the sky. But we've also seen

technologies develop where you have thousands of micro

satellites in a much more distributed way providing the same

effect," he said in a television interview with the Australian

Broadcasting Corporation.

Marles cited the use of Starlink above Ukraine and said

Australia needs to develop defence communications that are

distributed, more resilient and cost effective.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have used Starlink terminals

sold by Elon Musk's SpaceX Aerospace company for communications

during the Ukraine conflict.

Defence personnel minister Matt Keogh said in a radio

interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that

Australia wanted to develop "a mesh type arrangement of

satellites, which provides greater resilience".