France announces plans for space defense by launching its next military satellites — equipped with submachine guns and lasers to blind or destroy an enemy satellite.
Florence Parly, France’s Minister of Defense announced the program and also said that the country would be reallocating €700 million from the military budget for space defense project, with more than €4.3 billion to be spent by 2025.
According to Le Point, the new space force will be armed by 220 soldiers from its commencement. With this new space command, France will deploy new military means of detection to monitor the low orbit (between 100 and 800 km altitude) and geostationary (36 000 km).
The French army is also want to equip the next sensitive satellites with payloads — the next generation of Syracuse military communications satellites will be equipped with cameras that will allow them to identify possible attackers and later generation will be equipped with submachine guns capable of destroying the aggressor’s solar panels or by lasers to blind or destroy an enemy satellite.
The project also includes launching swarms of nanosatellites equipped with payloads and capable to do makeshift replacements to satellites that have been destroyed by the enemy.
To accelerate the development, a new weapons program “control of space” will be created within the armies and new unit will be fully functional by 2030.
Task & Purpose reports, Florence Parly said, “Active defense is not an offensive strategy — it’s self-defense. It is when a hostile act has been identified as such, acceptable within the confines of international law to be able to respond in an appropriate and proportionate manner. The law does not exempt self-defense, does not prohibit militarization, nor does it prevent weaponization.”
