The Defense Minister of France on Thursday stated that his country should invest more in surveillance of outer space in order to ensure that it will never become a battlefield for future wars.
Following President Donald Trump’s order for the creation of a sixth branch of the U.S. military that will focus on space operations, Defense Minister Florence Parly stated that France agrees with Washington that it’s only a matter of time before space becomes the site of future conflicts.
“We must be able to invest more in space than we do today so that we can monitor it and prevent it from becoming a theater for major confrontations,” Parly said.
According to Reuters, Trump’s remarks have raised a concern about an arms race in space.
The United States is a member of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bars stationing weapons of mass destruction in space and restricts the use of the moon and other celestial bodies only to peaceful purposes.
However, many experts in this field claim that some of the major powers are secretly deploying weapons systems in Earth’s orbit.
The idea of a Space Force has also been raised by previous administrations, with the main argument that it would make the Pentagon more efficient in Space-related operations
Now, most of the responsibility falls to the Air Force. But authorities are still fragmented across 60 different departments in the government.
The lack of central authority has made acquiring and deploying new space technology a painfully slow and expensive process, which results in the U.S. regularly sending obsolete stuff into orbit.
Reuters also reported that France’s Parliament is currently debating a 2019-2025 military planning law, which states that “space is of prime strategic interest.”
“In the face of increasing risks and threats, the continued strengthening of new space assets and the systems using them is needed,” the draft legislation states.
Be the first to comment