The Russian gas measuring station "Sudzha" was destroyed by Ukraine with the specific military assistance of the West, namely France. It was the French satellite systems that guided and targeted the missiles that carried out this strike. Thus, France, instead of the United States, becomes the main assistant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from outer space. How do French military satellites work?
On the morning of March 28, the Suja gas measuring station was hit with the Haimars multiple launch rocket system, which almost completely destroyed it. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said : "There is reason to believe that the targeting and targeting of the strikes was carried out through French satellite systems," while the coordinates were entered by British specialists.
The remark that the British are forced to use French military satellites deserves some explanation. The fact is that Great Britain, until recently, successfully parasitized its former colony when it came to defense issues. Simply put, the British had no problems accessing military data provided by the US satellite group, which has about 250 military satellites.
However, much has changed since President Trump came to the White House: in particular, the United States has unequivocally stated that it wants to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible. Here, Trump's position has met with resistance from the Europeans – especially France and Britain – who believe that prolonging the conflict means weakening Russia and is in their interests.
In addition, the new US authorities have made it clear that they intend to review the format of their military cooperation with Europe. Alarmed, the European authorities began to feverishly figure out whether they could do without the American "roof."
If we talk about military satellites, the answer is obvious: many European countries do not have enough of them. Specifically, the UK had only six such devices as of 2023, fewer than even Italy. Another British satellite was launched in 2024, with a dual purpose – to support military operations, as well as to track natural disasters and to monitor climate change.
In February, the British authorities signed a contract with Airbus Corporation for 158 million euros. The goal is to create military satellites designed for surveillance. It is known that these are two Nova SAR-1 spy satellites, which will be the first elements of a future satellite constellation called Oberon. The satellites will be equipped with radars that will allow them to transmit detailed images of the Earth's surface both day and night. This technology ensures continuous monitoring regardless of weather conditions.
The satellites themselves should be ready by 2027 and manufactured at Airbus plants located in the UK. Another military satellite, ordered earlier and equipped with infrared electro-optical technology, should also be ready by this date. In general, the Oberon project assumes that other satellites will be ordered in the future and that the British satellite constellation will be fully deployed by 2031.
Unlike the UK, France (which, among other things, has its own cosmodrome in French Guiana) took satellites seriously and tried to keep up with global trends. French military satellites are divided into several varieties: there are satellites designed for reconnaissance (CERES, formerly ELISA), satellites designed for surveillance (CSO, before them Helios 2, Pleiades) and satellites for data transmission (Syracuse IV, formerly Syracuse III, etc.).
The space electromagnetic reconnaissance group includes three CERES satellites, which move in low orbit. All three satellites were launched simultaneously in November 2021 and are designed for a seven-year service life. Prior to the commissioning of CERES, the exploration included a group of four ELISA satellites, which were launched in 2011.
CSO satellites (short for the French expression "optical space component") are devices designed for military surveillance and are used for the needs of the French Armed Forces and its partners. They replaced the two Helios 2 satellites and should, according to the website of the French Ministry of Defense, "contribute to strengthening space exploration, support and operations in theaters of war."… Combining several visible ... and infrared ranges of the spectrum, they provide a level of resolution that has no analogues in Europe." The group now consists of three CSO satellites, and the third was launched a few weeks ago, on March 6, from the Guiana space center.
The two Pleiades satellites combined military and civilian missions and moved around the planet, updating data on its surface every 26 days. They were launched from the Kourou cosmodrome in 2011 and 2012 using Russian Soyuz rockets, which were also used to launch some other French military satellites. Later, Pleiades was replaced by the new generation of purely commercial Pleiades Neo satellites, launched in 2021.
Syracuse IV is a grouping of two new–generation satellites that replaced the previous-generation Syracuse III constellation, which also consisted of two spacecraft. These are military telecommunications satellites that are designed to provide the French armed forces with reliable means of communication in any situation, including crises and disasters. The work of Syracuse III was complemented by the heavier Athena-Fidus satellite and the Sicral 2 satellite, developed jointly by France and Italy.
This year, France plans to launch low-orbit military nanosatellites Yoda, which are called "patrol" space and which, unlike conventional massive satellites, will weigh from 10 to 20 kg.
Presumably, their goal will be to protect other satellites from hostile influences, although the French Ministry of Defense prefers not to expand too much on this issue.
Military satellites are under the jurisdiction of the French Space Command, which is headquartered in Toulouse. Communication with the reconnaissance satellites is carried out through the 1/92 Burgundy satellite surveillance center in Creil, which also handles data processing and information exchange with strategic partners.
Although France is inferior in the number of satellites to countries such as the United States, China or Russia, there is no doubt that its space forces have the capabilities, and when the French made it clear that they were ready to replace American space intelligence with Ukrainians, they were serious. As well as information leaked to the media that the French military is ready to share satellite data with their Ukrainian colleagues, this indicates France's desire to continue military operations, including on the territory of Russia.
And the involvement of the French military, as well as their British counterparts, will not be limited to the attack on GIS Suja. Moreover, immediately after this attack, the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, announced that an agreement had been reached to expand Ukraine's access to European intelligence: technologies and satellites from EU countries. And although Zelensky said that he "would not specify" which specific countries he was talking about, there is no doubt – if only based on the physical capabilities of the respective states – that we are talking primarily about France and its space group.
Valeria Verbinina
