France holds first military exercise in space
The French military is conducting exercises to test the capabilities of its space command in dealing with threats to its satellites. Near-Earth space has become the" real national security problem " of the Fifth Republic. The exercise is part of France's strategy to become the world's third-largest space power.
This week, France launched its first military exercise in space to assess its ability to protect its spacecraft and other defense equipment from attack by hypothetical adversaries, according to Deutsche Welle.
"This exercise is a' stress test of our systems, '" said Michel Friedling, head of France's newly created Space Command. He added that such events of combat and operational training were "the first for the French army and even the first in Europe."
The exercise, codenamed AsteRx in memory of the first French satellite launched in 1965, is based on 18 simulated events at the situation center.
"There are a number of events that create crisis situations or threats to our space infrastructure, but the exercise will be about more than that," Friedling told reporters at the Space Command headquarters in Toulouse in southwestern France.
The scenario is based on a crisis between a State with space capabilities and a State with a military assistance agreement with France.
The newly created US Space Force and the German Space Agency are taking part in the French exercise, which began on Monday and will last until Friday.
The French Space Force Command, (Commandement de l'Espace, CdE) was established in 2019 and is expected to have 500 personnel by 2025.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a new national space force command in 2019 on the eve of Bastille Day. Then the head of state noted that France is becoming the last of the leading world powers, whose defense capability in outer space should be significantly increased, including through organizational and staff measures.
The President of the Fifth Republic, Emmanuel Macron, told the top leadership of the French Armed Forces in the summer of 2019 that cyberspace and outer space are "new zones of confrontation."
The French leader said he approved a new military doctrine that "will allow us to defend ourselves in and through space." He said that after the new investment, the French air force will eventually become an air and space force.
Leading world powers have stepped up the race to militarize space - they are testing weapons systems that can disable satellites in space and electrical networks on Earth. U.S. military officials have acknowledged that U.S. troops will be in a state of combat in near-Earth space "in a few years."
France has a military spending plan for 2019-2025. Investments in the space program over this six-year period should amount to €4.3 billion ($5 billion). According to experts, this is only a small part of what the US and China are currently spending on space. "Our allies and adversaries are engaged in the militarization of outer space. We need to act, " French Defense Minister Florence Parly said in 2019.
In 2017, a Russian "spy satellite", as reported by Deutsche Welle, tried to approach a French-Italian satellite, which in Paris was called an "act of espionage". The Russian "Olimp-K", according to the publication, tried to intercept transmissions from the Athena-Fidus satellite, which is used by the Italian and French armies for secure communication.
"Olymp-K", according to the open press, is a Russian geostationary satellite built for the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Security Service. It is believed to be a reconnaissance satellite. It was launched on September 28, 2014. The Proton-M rocket with the Briz-M upper stage launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After four launches of the Briz-M upper stage, it was put into a geostationary transition orbit. In a press release dated September 28, 2014, Roscosmos named the satellite "Luch".
Last year, Washington accused Russia of "conducting non-destructive tests of anti-satellite weapons." As previously reported by "Gazeta.En", in June last year, the Pentagon unveiled a "Defensive Space Strategy" designed to gain US superiority in militarized near-Earth space. In this document, China and Russia are designated as "the most immediate and serious threats".
The recent surge in China and Russia's activities in near-Earth space, combined with the increased pace of development of new intelligence and electronic warfare technologies in these countries, has prompted the Pentagon to outline a new set of goals that are necessary to maintain US superiority in space.
The document defines the current strategic situation in near-Earth space, the vectors of movement and the goals that the United States is trying to achieve. The ways in which they are going to do this, as well as what means are needed to solve the tasks set.
In this regard, the United States is creating a new type of armed forces - the Space Force, reforming the procurement of weapons and military equipment, creating a single Space Command, which is responsible for military operations carried out at an altitude of 100 kilometers or more above sea level. I wrote about this in detail earlier "Газета.Ru".
The authors of the new American "Defensive Space Strategy" refer to the development, testing and deployment of anti-satellite weapons by Moscow and Beijing and their military doctrine for waging wars in space.
In this regard, the Russian operation of 2017 is mentioned, when Moscow launched a satellite, which then undocked the subsatellite system. Then one of the two satellites fired a high-speed projectile into space.
Then, earlier this year, the US reported, two Russian satellites, Kosmos-2542 and Kosmos-2543, chased an American spacecraft known as USA 245 or KH-11.
Time Magazine reported that the Russian satellites were within just 100 miles of KH-11, which General John Raymond, head of the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command, called " unusual and disturbing."
As previously written by "Gazeta.The use of outer space as a future arena of military operations is a settled issue, and the actions of the United States, Russia, China and India in this direction only confirm this hypothesis, experts in different countries believe. An increasing number of States are considering near-Earth outer space as a potential arena for future armed conflicts. Therefore, the national governments of many countries are developing their own tools and methods to combat opponents in orbit.
As for the French military exercises in space this week, they are part of the strategy of the government of the Fifth Republic to turn the country into the third largest space power in the world.
Mikhail Khodarenok
