France held its first military exercise in space on March 8 to assess its satellite protection capabilities. The military exercises, which will last until March 12, are part of the French government's strategy to make the country the third-largest space power in the world.
Read also: Space: Ghost particle on Earth and cloud on Mars
The exercises, conducted by the French Space Agency, are called “AsterX” (a name that refers to the first French satellite launched in 1965) and will test 18 threat scenarios in simulation. The US Space Agency will also participate in them, as will the corresponding German agency.
See also: SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink satellites – just a week after the previous batch
Michel Friedling, head of France's newly created Space Command (CDE), said: "The exercises are a stress test of our systems. It was the first exercise for the French army but also for Europe."
Proposal: The first hotel in space will open in 2027 – it will accommodate 400 people
In one of the scenarios, the systems have to deal with a crisis that has arisen between a state that has a space force and another that has a military assistance agreement with France. “A series of events causes crisis situations or threats against our space assets, but not only,”says the head, adding that “virtual media and social networks” play a role in the scenario.
The French Space Forces Command was established in 2019, is in the development and manning phase, and is expected to employ 500 people by 2025. Investments in the space program are expected to reach 4.3 billion euros over the six-year period, an amount much smaller than what the US and China are investing.
“Our allies and adversaries are militarizing space and that is why we must act,”Defense Minister Florence Parly said in 2019. France also plans to develop anti-satellite laser weapons and enhance surveillance capabilities in a region it believes could become a major “theater” of confrontation between powers on Earth.
Notably, in 2017, a Russian "spy satellite" attempted to approach a Franco-Italian, an event that was characterized by Paris as an "act of espionage.".
