These adaptation efforts, which are part of a transparency and clarification approach, aim at reconciling strategic lucidity, protection and defence of our space interests, compliance with international law, and promotion of the peaceful and responsible use of space. They have been carried out in consultation with our allies and partners, and combine with the work conducted at NATO, with the recognition of space as a new operational domain, and at the EU, to better take into account the defence and security challenges.

The DSS has been developed at the request of the President of the Republic and represents an unprecedented exercise of transparency (available in English and French). It is based on a renewed analysis of the space strategic environment, and of its risks and threats. In fact, outer space, upon which we are increasingly reliant for our security and the functioning of our economies and societies, is, today, at the heart of growing tensions due, in particular, to three developments:

• Potentials offered by the New Space, which bring opportunities, but also new risks, and create a growing need for surveillance, or even coordination of space traffic (increase in the number of space actors, especially private ones, and of the objects in orbit, and coming to maturity soon of dual capabilities that may be diverted from their initial use);
• The lack of shared understanding of standards, rules and principles of responsible behaviour regarding space, which encourages the use of “hidden” strategies and actions of demonstration of power conducive to misunderstandings and risk of uncontrolled escalation;
• The strengthened strategic competition between space actors, which contributes to making outer space a place of potential rivalries and confrontation. What was perceived a few years ago as an exception, now forms a permanent feature in the landscape through the multiplication of non-conventional actions that point to a toughening of the operational environment (destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests, proximity manoeuvres in orbit, jamming actions, etc.).

Against this backdrop, having renewed and reinforced capabilities to protect and defend our space interests more effectively and to strengthen France’s sovereignty of appraisal, decision and action is critical. The DSS thus aims at strengthening our strategic autonomy by building on three aspects:

• Strengthening the current military strategic monitoring and operational support capabilities (observation, eavesdropping, telecommunications, positioning and navigation, meteorology, and geography);
• Extending space situational awareness capabilities to monitor the activity on all orbits, better understand the space environment, and be able to detect and attribute hostile acts on all orbits of interest;
• Developing, by 2030, an “active defence” capability in the framework of a self-defence strategy to protect the satellites contributing to our interests, deter any aggression, and be able, where appropriate, to defend our interests in accordance with international law, especially self-defence.

These efforts, which are made in the framework of a roadmap to 2030, are not conceived in an exclusively unilateral framework, but are, by construction, part of a collaborative context. France thus plans to strengthen its space cooperation both bilaterally and multilaterally, and in all areas, with its European partners in particular, but also with other key partners. Since February 2020, France has been a Participant in the Combined Space Operations (CSpO) initiative, alongside Australia, Canada, Germany,

New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. It will host the NATO Space Centre of Excellence (COE) in Toulouse, thus marking the recognition of French expertise in the field of space and France’s willingness to be involved in NATO, which in 2019 recognised space as an operational domain, in the same way as the air, land, maritime and cyber domains. Finally, France, which had made the launch of this work a priority of its Presidency of the Council of the European Union, welcomes the publication by the European institutions of a proposal for a European Union Space Strategy for Security and Defence clarifying the provisions of the Strategic Compass.

These efforts, which also aim at enforcing the peaceful and responsible use of space, are also part of a balanced, responsible and transparent approach. Our priority is to continue our diplomatic efforts aimed at promoting a peaceful use of space and to bring about a pragmatic, immediately applicable and effective regulation of the space domain within a multilateral framework. In particular, France supports the ongoing process at the United Nations aimed at "reducing space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviour". The work of the dedicated Open-Ended Working Group, in which it actively participates, is proof that we can act and propose concrete measures to improve the safety and stability of space activities. On 9 November 2022, France formally committed not to conducting destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests.

Together with the other actors of the French Ministry for the Armed Forces and cross-government actors, the DGRIS contributes not only to the development and implementation of France's DSS, and to its articulation with international (bilateral and multilateral) cooperation, but also to the development of French positions in the competent multilateral fora, in particular on the themes of security, sustainability, safety and stability of outer space.