Germany and Italy, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and even India and Japan, are identified as key partners for France in the 2019 military space strategy.
The MoD is now looking at flying a tiny demonstration satellite under the Yoda effort in 2023 and hopes to be able to orbit a larger one with initial operational capability by 2030, according to an October 2020 report by the National Defense and Armed Forces Commission of the French Parliament.įrance considers international cooperation as vital for both France and Europe in order to face the ‘new front’ of space threats, but also as a means to gain new opportunities. As announced by French Defense Minister Florence Parly, the patrol nanosats would identify on-orbit threats to France’s satellites and, if deemed necessary, disable them using an on-board laser.
The first Ceres sat, built by Airbus Defence and Space, is slated for launch this year.ĬNES is also going to participate in research under the recently designated ‘Yoda’ program - named after the tiny but mighty, lightsaber-wielding Jedi master in Star Wars - for the development of France’s ‘patrol’ nano-satellites. The next-generation Syracuse sats, being developed by an Airbus/Thales Alenia Space team, are scheduled for launch in 2022.
In addition, the military activities of CNES - the space agency always has undertaken some dual-use operations, with about 12 percent of its budget now so oriented - keep growing.įor example, CNES will use the Ariane 5 heavy lift rocket to launch the first of two planned Syracuse IV military communications satellites, as well as the first of three planned Ceres signals intelligence. The Defense Ministry (MoD) clearly is hoping to tap into the commercial space industry’s dynamism to be able to more rapidly develop modern capabilities. The CDE plans to host 500 military staff by 2025 in a building of its own in Toulouse - for now, the command is co-located within France’s civil space agency, CNES. There currently are about 200 AAE personnel, spread among four different sites and centers – Paris (management), Toulouse (space operations, command and control), Lyon (a space situational awareness center called COSMOS) and an observation center called CMOS in Creil. The AAE has now received its first officer, nicknamed “bébé espace” (literally space baby), directly assigned to a space position after graduation from France’s equivalent of the Air Force Academy. A tactical exercise meant to train and prepare space combatants, ASTERX simulated an international crisis with no less than 18 different space events and scenarios ranging from an attack on a French satellite to space debris threatening civilian populations to an adversary jamming of allied SATCOM. Michel Friedling, head of the French Space Command, as a ‘’stress test’’ for the country’s space command processes and systems. The ASTERX exercise, took place in Toulouse March 8-12. Up until now, Paris was a participant in US-led space wargames. The exercise signals the French government’s intent to reach for a higher ‘orbit’ as a sovereign nation in order to be able to face any future space conflict. PARIS: France led its first multinational military space exercise last month, with Germany, Italy and the US, marking the country’s effort to re-vamp its forces and operations to meet 21st century threats. A screen shot from control center during France’s first military space exercise, ASTERX, in March.