By BlueShift | 2025-11-17

French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated a space command facility in Toulouse on November 12, using the occasion to roll out a national space strategy and announce an increase in military and civil space spending.

The 11,000-square-meter facility is located at Air Base 101, in an area that serves as the country's space and aviation hub.

It is intended to serve as the "heart" of France's space sector, with around 300 staff currently in place at the facility, French newspaper Le Monde reported.

The ceremony at Air Base 101 symbolized the operational readiness of the nation's military space infrastructure and ushered in a new phase in national and European ambitions, Defence 24 reported.

"With the activation of the space command (Commandement de l’Espace, CDE) and the rollout of the national space strategy (Stratégie Nationale Spatiale, SNS), France firmly enters the global competition for dominance in orbit," it said.

"Paris now seeks not only to defend its interests in space but also to shape Europe’s collective capability."

Emphasis on European cooperation

The space strategy for 2025-2040, drafted by the French Secretariat General for Defense and National Security and presented by Macron, sets out the country’s civil and military priorities.

It is designed to ensure France and Europe retain the independent capability to launch and operate missions without external reliance.

It aims to promote public–private cooperation and the growth of dual-use technologies; expand strategic and defense capabilities; and increase participation in international research missions and exploration technologies.

And it seeks to bring fresh energy to European space cooperation through enhanced competitiveness, spelling out a "European preference" in procurement.

In his speech, Macron stressed the need to "encourage our European champions to be competitive on the global market," AFP reported.

He said France was accelerating the development of advanced warning capabilities in cooperation with Germany, strengthening space surveillance with the Aurore radar system to reduce dependence on other states.

"We are investing in means of action from the ground and space while respecting international law, but without any naivety," he said.

Europe is expected to further define its long-term space governance and funding priorities at the European Space Agency's Ministerial Conference in Bremen on November 26 and 27, and the French Space Summit scheduled for spring 2026.

While underscoring Europe as the primary framework for French space policy, Macron also pointed to key strategic partners, including India, Japan, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates, European Space Flight reported.

Increase in space spending

Macron announced increased spending in both military and civil space programs.

An additional 4.2 billion euros ($4.9 billion) has been allocated for military space activities up to 2030 -- an increase of around 70% that brings the military space budget to around 10.2 billion euros ($11.8 billion), per European Space Flight.

While civil spending figures are less clearly defined, France currently invests up to 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) per year in its civil space program, it said.

Macron has proposed total civil spending of 16 billion euros ($18.5 billion) on space between now and 2030, an increase of roughly 30 to 40% over current levels.

The priorities outlined for France's space strategy include developing future launchers that are reusable, have low-cost propulsion and high-thrust engines.

They include "sustaining and increasing the launch cadence of Ariane 6, improving its competitiveness, and modernizing the Guiana Space Centre, including the redevelopment of the Diamant and Soyuz launch pads."

In his speech, Macron made it clear that "depending on a major third-party power or any space magnate is out of the question."

Space has become a 'battlefield'

"The war of today is already being fought in space, and the war of tomorrow will begin in space," Macron said, singling out the threat posed by Russia.

"Space is no longer a sanctuary, it has become a battlefield," he said, noting that Russia has been carrying out "espionage" activities in space since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian space vehicles have been monitoring French satellites, he said, and there has been mass jamming of GPS signals and cyberattacks against space infrastructure.

Macron also pointed to the "particularly shocking Russian threat of nuclear weapons in space, the effects of which would be disastrous for the whole world."

"Our competitors are not waiting for us and now possess the capabilities to act in and toward space, particularly through directed-energy weapons, including lasers, deployed on Earth," he warned.

"These actions are not hypothetical; they are realities," he added. "They aim to deprive us of our freedom of action, to weaken our sovereignty, and to challenge our operational superiority."

"Faced with this threat, France is acting with a clear strategy: resilience, responsiveness, and the ability to act in and toward space."