France Conducts First Military Exercises In Space
source: Deutsche Welle
The French military will carry out drills to test the capabilities of its Space Command in tackling threats to its satellites. The exercises are part of France’s strategy to become the world’s third-largest space power. France launched its first military exercise in space this week to evaluate its ability to defend its satellites and other defense equipment from an attack.
The exercises are a “stress-test of our systems,” said Michel Frieling, the head of France’s newly created Space Command, adding that they were “a first for the French army and even a first in Europe.” The exercise, codenamed “AsterX” in memory of the first French satellite from 1965, will be based on 18 simulated events in an operations room. “A series of events appear and create crisis situations or threats against our space infrastructure, but not only this,” Friedling told reporters from the Space Command headquarters in Toulouse in southwest France. During the drill, the French military will monitor a potentially dangerous space object as well as a threat to its own satellite from another foreign power possessing a considerable space force. The scenario is based on a crisis between a state with space capabilities and another that has a military assistance agreement with France.
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