France, Germany join US space warfighting plan ‘Olympic Defender’

WASHINGTON — US Space Command today welcomed France and Germany as the newest participants in Operation Olympic Defender, the US military’s operational planning process for warfighting in space.

SPACECOM Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting traveled to Paris on Oct. 14 and Berlin on Oct. 11 to attend the two induction ceremonies with Maj. Gen. Phillipe Adam, French Space Command commander, and Lt. Gen. Gunter Schneider, director-general for military strategy and operations at the German Ministry of Defence, respectively, according to twin SPACECOM press releases.

Representatives of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and newest member New Zealand, which accepted the US invitation on Sept. 5, also participated, SPACECOM said.

“Seamlessly integrating with our international partners yields a collective, asymmetric advantage that
cannot be replicated by any one nation, command, or service acting on their own,” Whiting said during the Paris ceremony.

Created in 2013 by US Strategic Command, which at the time had responsibility for US military space operations, Operation Olympic Defender was updated in 2018 to open up allied participation. Australia, Britain and Canada joined in 2020. Whiting extended the invite to France and Germany, along with New Zealand, on April 9 at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

Details about the warplan, of course, are scant.

SPACECOM’s releases today characterize Operation Olympic Defender as “a multinational effort that focuses to optimize space operations, improve mission assurance, enhance resilience of space-based systems, synchronize efforts to strengthen deterrence against hostile actors and reduce the spread of debris orbiting the Earth.”

Schneider’s statement stressed the deterrent value of allied cooperation to keep eyes on the heavens and watch out for potentially dangerous activities by adversaries.

“Our common efforts as allies to increase our Space Domain Awareness will not only lead to a better understanding of the space domain, but it will also dissuade possible adversaries from dangerous and escalatory behavior in space as they will have to take into account that we can closely observe and evaluate each of their actions,” he said.

Adam struck a more martial tone in his statement — unsurprising in that France has been one of the few countries to admit to its pursuit of weapons on orbit, albeit characterizing its plans for “patrol” satellites that can shoot back with lasers at threats as strictly defensive.

“For France, joining the Multi-National Force-Operation OLYMPIC DEFENDER is a return to the spirit of LaFayette, in order to defend together freedom in space against growing threats,” said Adam. “It marks a new stage in the conduct of military space operations in coalition and sends out a clear message of strategic solidarity with our Allies.

“For those who missed their American history classes, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was a French nobleman and military officer who voluntarily joined the Continental Army under Gen. George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. He was in command of the last major battle in the war of independence against Britain, the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.

Paris and Berlin have been moving closer to the US with regard to space operations for several years. France and Germany in 2020 joined SPACECOM’s Combined Space Operations Initiative, following along behind US partners in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Since then, Italy, Japan and Norway have joined.

The Combined Space Operation Initiative issued its first public statement of intent in February 2022, calling for future collaboration in defending their interests in outer space — to include potential development efforts to fill gaps in their collective capabilities as well as norm-building efforts.