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Lasers, electromagnetic jammers, and other patrol satellites are among the military assets France seeks to bolster as part of its “national space strategy” set to be unveiled on Wednesday by President Emmanuel Macron.
The French leader will deliver his speech from the southern city of Toulouse where the country’s space agency (CNES) and leading aerospace companies, including Airbus, are based. There, he will also inaugurate a new building in which 500 military officers work on space operations.
“Space is no longer a peaceful place,” the French presidential palace said ahead of the visit.
“Space is a place of conflict, increasingly intense conflict, which follows the increase in the number of satellites in orbit and is also the subject of extremely aggressive challenges from our competitors, including Russia,” it added.
Among these aggressive behaviours are the use by competitors of satellites that move close to French assets in order to spy on them. But jamming or blinding capabilities, as well as weapons placed in orbit or fired from the ground that aim to destroy or at least damage national assets, are also increasingly being used.
“The latest information that can be revealed about the threat posed by Russia in particular is the deployment of nuclear weapons into orbit as part of a programme called Sputnik S,” the Elysée also said.
Attacks on satellites ‘can paralyse entire nations’
These behaviours can have damaging consequences for the entire space ecosystem as they can lead to space debris that can then incapacitate civilian and scientific assets.
France is developing new capabilities to counter these threats, including a variety of lasers and electromagnetic jammers in different frequency ranges that can destroy enemy observation satellites, the Elysée said.
Patrol and surveillance satellites should meanwhile be operational in 2027. These will act like “small fighter jets”, the presidential palace added, as they will be able to get close to unfriendly space assets to jam or spy on them.
Despite the overall strategy being aimed at maintaining a strategic autonomy in the sector – by modernising national assets, facilitating investments and the growth of domestic start-ups, and enticing young people into the sector – Macron is nonetheless expected to call for more European cooperation in the domain.
Germany, due to co-organise a global summit on space in April next year alongside France, has already announced it will invest €35 billion in space projects before the end of the decade.
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned when he announced the package in late September that “the conflicts of the future will no longer be confined to the Earth”.
“Satellite networks are the Achilles’ heel of modern societies. Attacks on them can paralyse entire nations,” he added, flagging that as he was speaking,two German satellites were being tracked by Russian reconnaissance satellites.
The money will go towards building satellite constellations as well as “offensive capabilities”, Pistorius said.
European Space Shield
The European Commission has meanwhile put forward a Defence Readiness plan to rearm Europe before the end of the decade, when some intelligence agencies believe Russia could be in a position to attack another European country.
The roadmap aims to see member states invest up to €800 billion in defence before 2030, with a European Space Shield identified as one of four flagship projects to be prioritised for financing. The shield is being described as key to ensuring the protection of resilience of member states’ space assets and services.
The Commission will release a dedicated communication on the European Space Shield next year, Defence and Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius told European lawmakers last week.
Additionally, the Commission has tabled €131 billion for defence and space in its proposal for the bloc’s next budget for the 2028-2034 period, of which about €60-€70 billion will go towards defence and the rest to space, according to Commissioner Kubilius.
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