VIDEO. Space: in Toulouse, the keystone of military space operations for France is integrated
Faced with an increasingly tense space environment, France is preparing its response weapons: the Space Command is gaining momentum in Toulouse.
At 10:51 a.m. yesterday morning, the Patrouille de France flew over the Toulouse Space Center of the Cnes, in “rocket” formation. Logic. Passage in honor of the hundred airmen who work there today and their scientific hosts… She thus underlined the rise in power of the Space Command (CDE), announced on July 13, 2019 by Emmanuel Macron then launched in Toulouse in February 2020 by the Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly.
In fact, since last year at the same time, the CDE has doubled its staff and when its units from Lyon, Paris and Creil have joined Occitania “we will be 500 in 2025”, recalled, this Thursday, General Philippe Adam, boss since July of this real keystone of military space operations for France… And therefore of its strategic autonomy, on land, at sea, in the air and in orbit. Because if there has not yet been a war in space, it has been a long time since there has been any more war without space. Without observation, listening and communication satellites; without all the data feeding cyberspace and its new immaterial battlefields, a summary in substance General Adam.
Example Ukraine, where the contribution of NATO intelligence to Kyiv is decisive… With the possible contribution of French satellites, do we wonder? “France as an ally in NATO does everything that NATO does, but there is a big stake in not exceeding the thresholds that would put us in difficulty”, so there is “a lot of restraint and I I won’t go any further on these subjects,” replies the general.
Be that as it may… In the offices hosted by Cnes while waiting for the buildings that will come out of the ground by 2025, a stone’s throw away, a major tool for independence is being put in place and the visible part of the 5 billion euros voted for space in the Military Programming Law 2019-2025, in order to deal with an increasingly “unfriendly” environment.
Americans, Russians, Chinese, Indians, Europeans… the orbits have in fact become a reflection of terrestrial tensions, with more and more “walking” satellites, like the Russian Luch-Olymp caught in the act of spying or other “carriers of unknown charges”, potentially carrying threats.
“Access to space has generated fierce competition,” points out General Adam. France’s asset in this context? Toulouse, precisely, the European space capital, with the 1,700 Cnes personnel and the 15,000 employees of this ecosystem within the planned space will not only be part of the CDE but also soon the Space Center of excellence of NATO. Toulouse where the Yoda satellite will be developed, future patrol and sentinel for vital military and civilian satellites. Indeed, “we will apply self-defense: protect ourselves and protect our partners”, warns the boss of the CDE. But from there to making satellite killer satellites… Not yet, a priori. With 36 million pieces of debris already in orbit, the chain reaction would have caused a worldwide disaster of scientific and military knowledge. And the CDE will therefore also be responsible for building the responses in accordance.