Release date
•updated
Lasers, electromagnetic jammers and other patrol satellites are among the military assets France is ramping up as part of a “national space strategy” that President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce on Wednesday.
The French leader will speak from the southern city of Toulouse, where the country’s space agency (CNES) and major aerospace companies including Airbus are based. There, he will also inaugurate a new building that will house 500 military personnel working on space operations.
Ahead of the visit, the French presidential palace said: “Space is no longer a peaceful place.”
“Space is a site of conflict, which is becoming increasingly intense as the number of satellites in orbit increases, and it is also the subject of highly aggressive challenges from competing nations, including Russia,” it added.
These aggressive acts also include the use of satellites by competitors to access French assets to monitor them. But in addition to jamming and blinding capabilities, orbit-based or ground-launched weapons are increasingly being used to destroy or at least damage national assets.
“The latest information that has come to light regarding the threat posed by Russia in particular is the deployment of nuclear weapons into orbit as part of a program called Sputnik S,” the Elysée Palace also reported.
Attacks on satellites ‘could paralyze entire nations’
These actions can have negative effects on the entire space ecosystem, creating space junk and potentially disabling civilians and scientific assets.
France is developing new capabilities to counter these threats, including various lasers and electromagnetic jammers in different frequency ranges that can destroy enemy observation satellites, the Elysée newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, patrol and surveillance satellites are scheduled to begin operation in 2027. These will function like “small combat aircraft” and be able to approach and intercept or monitor hostile space assets, the presidential palace added.
Macron is expected to seek more European cooperation in this area, even though the overall strategy aims to maintain the sector’s strategic autonomy by modernizing national assets, encouraging investment and growth of domestic start-ups, and attracting young people to the sector.
Germany will co-host a world summit on space with France next April and has already announced that it will invest 35 billion euros in space projects by the end of 2010.
When Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced the plan in late September, he warned that “future conflicts will no longer be limited to Earth.”
“Satellite networks are the Achilles heel of modern society. An attack on a satellite network could paralyze an entire nation,” he added, warning during his speech that two German satellites were being tracked by Russian reconnaissance satellites.
Pistorius said the money would go toward building a constellation of satellites and “strike capabilities.”
european space shield
Meanwhile, the European Commission defense preparedness plan The goal is to rearm Europe by the end of this decade, when some intelligence agencies believe Russia is in a position to attack other European countries.
The roadmap aims for member states to invest up to €800 billion in defense by 2030, with the European Space Shield listed as one of four flagship projects prioritized for funding. This shield is said to be key to ensuring the resilience of member states’ space assets and services.
Defense and Space Commissioner Andrius Cubilius told the European Parliament last week that the Commission will publish a dedicated document on the European Space Shield next year.
Moreover, the European Commission has earmarked 131 billion euros for defense and space in the bloc’s next budget for 2028-2034, of which around 60-70 billion euros will go to defense and the rest to space, according to Commissioner Kubilius.
