France is building a laser-armed killer satellite. What could it look like?
The laser patroller satellite: an elegant weapon for a more civilized age
Author: gosnold
France’s Space Commander shares lessons learned from Ukraine and future plans
The defense commission of the French National Assembly is having a series of hearings about the lessons learned so far from the Ukraine war, and has finally published the exchange with the head of Space Command.
France debates its near-space policy
To start off 2023, the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force organized a colloquium on Very High Altitude Operations, meaning operations between conventional airplane altitudes, under 20km, and "orbital space" above 100km. It featured Air Force officials, but also the companies and research institutes involved in developing platforms able to fly at these… Continue reading France debates its near-space policy
ASTERX 22: France’s annual military space exercise
While Russia started invading Ukraine, French Space Command was holding its annual exercise, called ASTERX 22. The ministry of armed forces then gave a presentation to the press about the command and the exercise. Background on French military space policy The presentation started with an introduction of French military space. To readers of this site,… Continue reading ASTERX 22: France’s annual military space exercise
China completes the Yaogan-30 constellation
This article initially appeared on eastpendulum.com, a French-language blog about the Chinese military and aerospace industry The Chinese Yaogan-30 constellation has already been the topic of two previous articles, but this one is probably the last: with the launch of the seventh trio of satellites, the constellation has now six equally-spaced planes, so it has… Continue reading China completes the Yaogan-30 constellation
The case for a French military constellation
There has been a recent change in French military space policy: high-level officials have starting floating the idea of a constellation of small satellites to support military operations.
GEOINT at DRM, the French military intelligence agency
The center for artificial intelligence at the Paris Sorbonne university is organizing a weekly seminar on the state of GEOINT in France, with a lot of distinguished speakers from the French ministry of the armed forces and from the industry. To open the series, they had none other than general (Air) Jean-François Ferlet, the head of the military intelligence agency DRM (Direction du Renseignement Militaire)
The American proliferated LEO architecture
The USA have for a long time been trying to track missiles after the main engine has burned out. The recent rise of manoeuvrable hypersonic gliders and cruise missiles has made this need more pressing, since they fly very low compared to ballistic missiles, and consequently they are mostly below the radar horizon. China and… Continue reading The American proliferated LEO architecture
French military space strategy
France recently published its military space strategy, and an officer from Space Command gave a detailed and public presentation about it.
French military space roundtable
The French ministry of defense organized a roundtable on military space between a senior officer and three junior officers in different space-related organizations of the ministry. They detailed their thinking on SSA, intelligence, and conflict in space.
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