France to defend French satellites

Just ahead of recent Bastille Day celebrations, Emmanuel Macron the French president announced the creation of a space command that would be part of the French Air Force according to a Reuters' report.

Space Command would defend French satellites

Macron made the remarks to military personnel. He said the space command would have the task of defending French satellites and that the command would be officially created this September. The French Air Force he announced would be eventually renamed the Space and Air Force.

The new Space Command it appears will replace France's existing Joint Space Command that is now responsible for its space assets as well as coordinating with the military forces of other European nations.

France focusing more on space

France has the third-oldest space agency but only in recent years has it begun to focus more on space. The country plans to spend 3.6 billion euros between now and 2025 on space. In December 2018 France launched a new military reconnaissance satellite the CSO-1 and will launch more in the coming years.

Space as a domain of warfare

Over recent years space has become more militarized: "The militarisation of space involves the placement and development of weaponry and military technology in outer space. The early exploration of space in the mid-20th century had, in part, a military motivation, as the United States and the Soviet Union used it as an opportunity to demonstrate ballistic-missile technology and other technologies having the potential for military application. Outer space has since been used as an operating location for military spacecraft such as imaging and communications satellites, and some ballistic missiles pass through outer space during their flight. As of 2019, known deployments of weapons stationed in space include only the Almaz space-station armament and pistols such as the TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol (for post-landing, pre-recovery use)."

A number of countries have recognized space as a distinct domain of warfare added to land, sea, and air, or even within digital systems. The new French initiative appears designed to answer the problems that space-borne military infra-structure will potentially bring.

France's space command may be patterned on that of the US

In 1985 the US set up its United States Space Command as part of the US military. Its role was to oversee and coordinate US orbital assets such as satellites. However, after the 9/11 attacks it was merged into the US Strategic Command. Last year, President Trump ordered the Department of Defense to create a new Space Command that would be part of a new branch of the US military the Space Force.

Previously published in the Digital Journal