<\/u>La Ministra de defensa de Francia ha expresado que se priorizaran recursos presupuestarios para su nueva \u201cDefense Space Strategy\u201d. L\u00edderes de la Industria de la Defensa como la empresa THALES, exploran alternativas para el desarrollo de Sistemas de Armas de Energ\u00eda Dirigida, montados en nano-sat\u00e9lites, capaces de ejecutar misiones de car\u00e1cter defensivo sobre eventuales amenazas, con el fin de proteger los grandes sistemas de sat\u00e9lites vitales para ese pa\u00eds y sus aliados.<\/p>\n
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WASHINGTON: France is pumping an extra 700 million Euros ($778 million) into Defense Ministry coffers for military space between 2019 and 2025 \u2014 bringing the total budget to 4.3 billion Euro ($4.9 billion), French Defense Minister Florence Parley announced yesterday as part of a new and more aggressive French Space Strategy that includes space-based shoot-back capabilities.<\/p>\n
In language that very closely echoes US Air Force\u00a0counterspace operations doctrine,\u00a0Parley was quick to stress that France was not moving toward an offensive strategy in space. \u201cAnd here, I want to be precise: active defense is not an offensive strategy, it\u2019s all about self-defense,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is, when a hostile act has been detected, characterized and attributed, to be able to respond in an appropriate and proportionate way, in conformity with the principles of international law.\u201d (All translation mine, with help from Google.)<\/p>\n
The announcement yesterday by Parley of the new strategy (available on the\u00a0Ministry\u2019s website\u00a0for those who read French) was not a surprise. But her call for satellites \u2014 perhaps nanosatellites \u2014 carrying lasers to \u201cdazzle\u201d hostile spacecraft was.<\/p>\n
While France \u2014 like the United States \u2014 will \u201creserve the time and place\u201d of any reaction to hostile acts, Parley said, she added that \u201cthis may involve the use of powerful lasers deployed from our satellites or from our (future) nanosatellite spy spacecraft\u201d \u2014 that is, a constellation of nanosatellites for monitoring the \u201cspace\u201d around French satellite constellations.<\/p>\n
Such a constellation would be similar in function (although based on much smaller satellites) to the\u00a0US Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program\u00a0(GSSAP) constellation. However, as far as we know, GSSAP satellites are not carrying shoot-back lasers.<\/p>\n
Parley indicated that the Ministry of Defense (MoD) has been exploring with French defense giant Thales concepts for what she called \u201cfearsome little detectors\u201d that \u201cwill be the eyes of our most valuable satellites.\u201d Thales representatives could not be reached for comment before press time.<\/p>\n
The lasers, she said, could \u201cdazzle those who would be tempted to approach too close.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US has for years been fascinated by the potential for laser weapons based in space \u2013either for ballistic missile defense or for attacking adversary satellites. However, DoD researchers have been stymied by a myriad technical problems. Indeed, DoD Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin has revived his Reagan era-dream of\u00a0space-based missile defenses carrying lasers\u00a0or\u00a0 perhaps even neutral particle beams.<\/p>\n
While using a laser \u201cup closer and personal\u201d in orbit to \u201cblind\u201d a hostile satellite is theoretically possible for some purposes, space scientists say it would be difficult and require a large satellite with a heavy power source. Many studies over many years have found that while it is again, theoretically, possible to use lasers to shoot down missiles early in their ascent \u2014\u00a0it would be neither easy nor cheap nor even really solve the problem\u00a0due to the easy ability of adversaries to fire more missiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cDazzling from accompanying satellites (probably not \u201cnano\u201d satellites unless that definition is very generous) or on-board might stop other slow moving proximity operations satellites from observing their satellite [targets] or to make it hard for them to use lidar for getting really close,\u201d says Laura Grego, an astrophysicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Lidar \u2014 light detection and ranging sensors \u2014 are used to guide spacecraft into docking mechanisms on the International Space Station for example.<\/p>\n
However, she continued, \u201cIt would be very complicated to try to use an on-board laser to interfere with something fast moving on a cross-orbit or a direct ascent.\u201d<\/p>\n
With regard to international law, Parley\u2019s plan to laze satellites that get \u201ctoo close\u201d \u2014 even if technically feasible \u2014 would face legal hurdles. For one thing, the\u00a0Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967\u00a0prohibits nations from claiming space or celestial bodies such as the Moon as their own. The treaty\u2019s central Article II states: \u201cOuter space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.\u201d Thus while a French government satellite itself is national property (indeed, even privately owned satellites are national property under the treaty) the OST does not give a country the right to define the equivalent of territorial waters in space.<\/p>\n
Until a new space-based program can be developed, Parley noted that space situational awareness (SSA) is one of the pillars of the French Space Strategy. She explained that\u00a0France is today one of the few nations with SSA capabilities.<\/p>\n
The French Air Force\u2019s GRAVES bistatic radar \u2014 whic has been in operation since the 1990s and works like the US Space Fence) and its associated three tracking tracking antennas called Satam are key parts of the French SSA network. GRAVES is undergoing an update, Parley said, that will extend its tracking range \u2014 allowing it to see \u201cobjects the size of a shoebox at a distance of 1,500 kilometers.\u201d<\/p>\n
France also is looking at upgrading the CNRS and Ariane Group Tarot telescopes used both for SSA in and astronomy in deeper space. Further, she said, the MoD \u201cwill seek the services of Ariane Group\u2019s Geotracker network to get more images of Geostationary Orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, Parley recalled that she had ordered in September that\u00a0cameras be fitted on the Syracuse military telecommunications satellite for self-defense. Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space are building two Syracuse 4 satellites, and a third is planned.<\/p>\n
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Parley\u2019s release of the French Space Strategy follows the July 13 announcement by President Emmanuel Macron that he had approved the creation of a Space Command, to be stood up by September, as a subordinate command to the Air Force. Further, echoing his counterpart President Donald Trump, Macron said that eventually the Air Force would be transformed into an Air and Space Force. The space command is to be initially staffed by 220 personnel and located in Toulouse \u2014 incidentally the headquarters of French aerospace giant Airbus.<\/p>\n
All things considered, Macron is likely to get his way far sooner than Trump \u2014 who has called for a separate Space Force equal to the Air Force and other service departments \u2014 as\u00a0Congress remains highly skeptical\u00a0of the idea.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Macron will have to figure out a way to convince his arguably most important counterpart, Angela Merkel \u2014 who\u00a0Politico\u00a0is reporting is less than happy with the new French strategy. Germany has traditionally been wary of the very idea of warfare in space, but has acquiesced to the idea that it might be necessary in the face of Russian and Chinese actions. NATO is set to officially declare space a warfighting domain in December at its summit in December.<\/p>\n