Building on President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to establish a space command, French officials have revealed a new cosmic self-defense and surveillance program.
The project aims to develop nano-satellites equipped with guns and lasers, according to France’s Le Point magazine.
Defense Minister Florence Parly said the country is not interested in an arms race. Rather, the creation of a “space command” is part of a strategy to bolster defense capabilities.
“If we want to be able to carry out real military operations in space, then we need to develop the ability to act alone,” Parly said on Thursday, as quoted by Reuters.
At its inception, the new directive will comprise 220 people at the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse, France. The project will add another €700 million ($778.6 million) to the military’s existing €4.3 billion ($4.8 billion) budget for its 2019-2025 program.
Moving forward, next-generation satellites will be equipped with cameras to identify possible cosmic attackers; subsequent spacecraft will feature weapons (like submachine guns and lasers) to fight back.
There was also talk of nano-satellite “watchers”: swarms of tiny capsules placed around strategic objects to patrol and protect French technology—”fearsome little detectors that will be the eyes of our most valuable satellites,” according to the minister.
Parly is not messing around.
“If our satellites are threatened, we will consider blinding those of our opponents,” she said, as reported by Task & Purpose. “This may involve the use of power lasers deployed from our satellites or from our patrol nano-satellites.”
The move comes five months after President Trump signed a directive to establish a new branch of the U.S. military dedicated to handling threats in space.
The United States Space Force, as described in an official White House document, would be authorized to “organize, train, and equip military space forces … to ensure unfettered access to, and freedom to operate in, space, and to provide vital capabilities to joint and coalition forces in peacetime and across the spectrum of conflict.”
Before anyone can ensure America’s sovereignty among the stars, though, the proposal must be OKed by Congress.
France, meanwhile, is calling on its European partners to aid in the fight against celestial enemies, counting, “in particular,” on Germany “to be at the heart of space surveillance.”
“Having a reinforced space defense is absolutely essential,” Parly said in a statement published by Le Point (and translated by Google). “It is our freedom of appreciation, access and action in space that is at stake.”
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