Star Wars is not just a movie. The French and Italian military learned it to their cost last year, victims of an act of espionage at 36 000 km altitude! Their joint satellite Athena-Fidus, which allows to plan the operations of their armies and exchange information, has been approached by the Russian satellite Louch-Olymp. So close that his goal would have been to try to listen to the communications. The fact was revealed by the Minister of Armies Florence Parly during a trip Friday, September 7, in Toulouse to the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) and its suppliers of military satellites Thales and Airbus.
According to the Minister of the Armed Forces, space has become a new field of confrontation. The major space powers multiply initiatives: development of an offensive arsenal in orbit, aggressive maneuvers, deployment of intriguing objects … The United States, China and Russia have electromagnetic gps jammer or even high-energy lasers capable of to reach the mirror of a satellite hundreds of kilometers away … Scenarios of cyberattacks on ground infrastructure are not excluded either.
Donald Trump and his space force
To ensure its safety, France has decided to react. President Emmanuel Macron has asked his minister to define a new strategy for space defense by the end of the year. On a smaller scale, France takes the wheel of the United States. Last summer, President Donald Trump announced the creation for 2020 of a space force.
Through the 2019-2025 military programming law, France will renew all of its space military capabilities: satellites for observation and electromagnetic listening, telecommunications satellites, radars for the detection of space objects from the ground, etc. total, 3.6 billion euros will be invested.
This new strategy of space defense must take into account the new space, the arrival of private actors such as Space X with reusable rockets and multiple start-ups that offer innovative technologies and services. The Californian actor Planet offers terrestrial imaging services with an unparalleled rate of image refresh thanks to a constellation of minisatellites. The Ministry of the Armed Forces could buy from these newcomers services to supplement its capabilities. The launch of the constellations will upset the spatial landscape. It is estimated that 7,000 additional satellites will gravitate in 10 years around the planet.
Identification of space objects
This new ambition will consolidate major programs, with Ariane 6 in the lead. “This project is essential, it is a guarantee of Europe’s access to space and benefits both the civilian world and the defense, in full synergy with our deterrence channel,” said Florence. Parly. ONERA, which develops the Graves terrestrial radar capable of detecting satellites in low Earth orbit, will benefit from new financing to modernize it. It will be completed by satellites dedicated to the observation of objects from space. Thales will not be left out. It develops new generation sensors that will allow the cataloging and identification of space objects.
The minister intends to rely on the industrial ecosystem to build a real space strategy