WASHINGTON — French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced a planned increase of €4.2 billion ($4.9 billion) in military space spending between 2026 and 2030.
“We must fight to preserve this precious asset; indeed, space is no longer a sanctuary, it has become a battlefield,” he said, according to a translation by Google. “Today’s war is already being fought in space, and tomorrow’s war will begin in space. Let us be ready. This will be a condition for the success of military operations on land, in the air, and at sea.”
Speaking at a ceremony in Toulouse to celebrate the achievement of operational capability by France’s Space Command, Macron said that the funds would support the 2027 launch of the Ministry of Defense’s long-planned counter-space satellites.
“In addition to what was already planned for active defense, we will deploy our first patrol satellites … starting in 2027 to monitor, inspect, and, if necessary, counter threats in orbit. These will be complemented by our first space-based action capabilities based on lasers and jammers,” he said.
Since 2024, the French military has been working on two maneuverable microsatellites to spot, and potentially take action against, threatening satellites in low Earth orbit under its TOUTATIS (In-Orbit Test of Action Techniques against Attempted Spatial Interference) program. TOUTATIS is a companion to the YODA (Yeux en Orbite pour un Démonstrateur Agile) experimental “patrol” nanosatellite in geosynchronous orbit effort, initiated in 2019, as well as a project known as FLAMHE to develop on-board lasers to blind threatening satellites. The projects are part of the French MoD’s overarching ARES (Action et Résilience Spatiale) program.
Macron said that the funds also will support “accelerating the development of our early warning capabilities in cooperation with Germany.”
The two countries in October announced the Joint Early Warning for European Lookout (JEWEL) initiative to develop, detect and track missiles, which is designed to contribute to NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence effort. Germany, for its part, pledged in September to invest $41 billion in military space systems over the next five years.
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Finally, Macron said, the spending would support the French military’s AURORE ground-based space surveillance radar.
French defense firm Thales (now set to create a joint space-focused entity with Airbus and Leonardo) on Oct. 25 announced a contract for an undisclosed amount from the French Defense Procurement Agency to develop the new UHF radar to monitor low Earth orbit. “AURORE will be the largest surveillance radar deployed in Europe,” the release said.
The additional funds are in support of France’s new national space strategy, which sets “Strategic and Defense” capabilities as the third of with five key “pillars,” Macron explained. The other four are:
Access to space: “Having autonomous access to space is a collective responsibility for France and for Europe. Depending on a major third-party power or any kind of space magnate is out of the question,” he said, in what could be read as a nod to concerns about America’s reliability as a security partner. “[T]his means we must guarantee the maintenance and development of our launch base, the Guiana Space Centre, and the control of our launchers, with Ariane today and our future launchers tomorrow, which are the main levers for our independent access.”
Industry and Skills: “The French space sector can only be credible, and even sovereign, with a competitive industry. The industrial and commercial model must be rethought from the ground up,” Macron said. “The battle for skills is also a decisive battle.
Science and Exploration. “Climate change is a framework for many programs undertaken by CNES [the French space agency] in conjunction with others, especially at a time when some are withdrawing to understand the origin of the universe and so many other key elements,” he said. “Therefore, continuing to defend science and exploration in space is also an element of sovereignty and independence.”
Cooperation. While citing a wide range of partner countries for France’s space programs, Macron stressed the need for Europe to create a strong, unified regional presence in the heavens. “Our European space program is fragile. It is under attack by those who would like to fragment it to prevent us from being stronger together,” he said.
This includes supporting the development of “European champions so that they are competitive on the global market,” Macron said. “To achieve this, we need to move beyond the mechanism of geographical return to competitive markets.”
Further, he said, it involves each nation setting a policy of “European preference” when granting space-related government contracts, saying it would be “naive” to think that China and America don’t do the same.
“This European preference is not a dirty word and it is not protectionism,” Macron asserted.