PARIS -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy's June 17 call for "a massive investment" in space-based intelligence faces stiff resistance in France and an uncertain reception by France's European partners, French government and industry officials said. Opposition on either front could be lethal for the proposals, they added.

 

Sarkozy is calling for no real increase in defense spending. Instead, space-based assets would be financed from savings resulting from cuts in the number of French military personnel and the closure of unneeded military bases in France.

 

In Europe, the reaction of Germany and Italy will be key to determining whether satellites for missile detection and radar and electronics eavesdropping will be built. French officials have said they are unlikely to go it alone for such investment, especially since France's arms procurement agency, DGA, already has built or is building demonstrator satellites for those purposes. The next step would be operational systems that would be much more expensive and would need support elsewhere in Europe.

 

"If we want a truly operational system it's clear it needs to be developed in cooperation with our partners in Europe," said Joel Chenet, senior vice president for strategy at Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy, one of Europe's two principal satellite prime contractors.

 

In a June 18 interview, Chenet said the development of multinational space-hardware builders in Europe — Astrium of France, Germany, Britain and Spain is the other prime example — is making it easier for pan-European military satellite efforts to move forward — in principle. "What we need now is for the president's goals to find an echo in concrete program proposals and increased annual budgets starting later this year," Chenet said. "We should recall that would not be the first time that high-level proposals have called for new investment and that the follow-through has been disappointing."

 

In February 2007, the French Defense Ministry set space as one of its highest priorities. No budget or program proposals were forthcoming.

 

"No action has taken place so far despite the high-level backing," Bernard Molard, Astrium's defense and security advisor, said during a May conference on military space policy. Sarkozy's June 17 remarks were delivered to a military audience and were accompanied by a 48-page White Paper on Defense and National Security — the first long-term military spending blueprint for France since 1994.

 

The document calls for the creation of a Joint Space Command for military space oversight to be managed by the French air force and placed under the authority of the Joint Defense Staff.

 

Sarkozy said he backed a ballistic missile-warning satellite and an operational space-based capability for localizing and identifying radar transmissions.

 

"Knowledge and anticipation will be the top priority," Sarkozy said of the new French defense posture, which calls for major cuts in the number of armed forces personnel and the closing of numerous military installations to pay for the new effort in strategic reconnaissance. "I have decided to make a massive — massive — investment in intelligence, notably space-based systems, which will benefit both the military leadership and political decision makers."

 

The White Paper calls for a doubling of France's current annual military space budget of 380 million euros ($585 million) "in the coming years."

 

The only mission specifically referenced in the White Paper is the Ceres radar-intercept satellite, which would follow the four-satellite Elisa technology demonstration mission scheduled for launch in 2010. The first test of the White Paper's ability to survive a difficult government budget environment will come in the fall, when the French Defense Ministry will incorporate the new policy into a spending proposal to be reviewed by the French parliament.

 

The White Paper's other proposals include:

 

§   Development by 2020 of a ballistic missile-detection and early warning capability featuring ground-based radar and satellite assets. Thales Alenia Space and Astrium are building two Spirale missile-warning demonstrator satellites scheduled to be launched this year as piggyback payloads into geostationary-transfer orbit. "France expects this program to acquire a European dimension as soon as possible," the document says.

 

§   Support of a European industrial base to avoid being dependent on non-European nations for key defense and aerospace-related electronics, and especially in response to export restrictions elsewhere, notably the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations export licensing regime.