Military Space Operations

Military Space Operations include all the activities conducted by or on behalf of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces in, from or to outer space in order to guarantee the availability, tracking, safety and security of France’s national space capabilities and services or of the space capabilities and services in France’s national interest and thereby to preserve our freedom of analysis, access and action in this domain. These operations consist in operating space capabilities that provide services in support of governmental authorities and military operations, thereby helping to maintain freedom of manoeuver. They contribute to the security of France’s national territory, the robustness of our economy and the protection of populations. They also include actions conducted in space to protect our assets and deter any aggression. Military Space Operations are divided into four functional subdivisions.

Space capabilities support

Space Capabilities Support ensures the deployment, implementation and availability of space capabilities. Of the four subdivisions of OSM, Space Capabilities Support has the most clearly marked dual functionality. Its functions include launching satellites and putting them into orbit, the commissioning of launch pads, satellite operational maintenance and station-kee ping and capability restoration - i.e. restoring or replacing diminished or inadequate capabilities, including the use of allied or commercial capabilities.

Space-based operational support

This function is characterized by the commissioning and operation of space capabilities to support political decisions and military operations. Space services indeed provide critical support to military operations, from the strategic level to the tactical level, via remote sensing or electronic intelligence, high-speed secure communications and precise and secure navigation and positioning services. In all the weapon systems currently under development, the various platforms will be interconnected, and space will play a vital role.

Space Domain Awareness

The protection of satellites and the defence of national interests in space require one key foundation – situational awareness of the space domain, providing the ability to anticipate. This is the role of Space Domain Awareness (SDA), which has become essential for commercial use of the space domain, the prevention of collision risks in space, coordination with other space operators and the conduct of military operations. This function is based on France’s national capabilities in combination with services provided by trusted non-state operators.

Action in space

This function includes all the passive and active measures aimed at preserving, under all circumstances, France’s freedom of access and freedom of action in space, and deterring and foiling adversaries acting below the level of armed conflict. Today, space action is based on prevention, via an all-domain approach (diplomatic, legal, economic etc.) and on the resilience of all our space assets. In future, space action will be based on the active defence capabilities of French and European assets, including self-defence capabilities in strict compliance with international law and peaceful use of space. France’s Military Procurement Law (LPM) is designed to enable the French armed forces to procure the initial capabilities necessary for conducting actions in space. For example, the aim of the CDE is to prepare for the arrival in 2025 of “YODA”, its first demonstration satellite system for space action. This demonstration satellite system is designed to experiment France’s capability to carry out close proximity actions in geostationary orbit. It will prefigure a first operational capability and will be a major source of information for achieving full capability by 2030.

The future system for control of the space domain

Understanding, monitoring, verifying, deciding and acting are key foundations for the control of the space domain. This requires a 4.0 space operations command and control system. C40S (Command, Control, Communication and Computing) will be at the heart of France’s future military space capability. It will enable to anticipate the courses of action of our adversaries, taking into account the specific characteristics and dynamics of the space domain and the increasing number of objects in orbit. The challenge will be to acquire and maintain the capability to collect huge amounts of data of different types, to store, process and merge these data, replay situations and simulate scenarios to provide useful information and generate appropriate responses.

The development strategy for this system, in which artificial intelligence (AI) will play a key role, has been defined in conjunction with the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA), with the aim of having a system for integrating data of different origins and diverse characteristics by the year 2025.