France wants to mount guns and lasers on its satellites for self-defense purposes

[Polycount]

Space lasers: Space lasers are all the rage in the tech industry over the last couple of years. China wants to use orbital lasers to destroy space junk, and Facebook wants to use lasers to boost satellite communications. All of those use cases are fairly benign, but France wants to use space lasers for slightly more militaristic purposes moving forward.

French news site Le Point recently reported that the country intends to "reallocate" a whopping €700 million from its full military budget to its "Space Force" in the near future. This money will be used to fund satellite-mounted defense systems, including lasers, submachine guns, and other forms of defensive tech.

Despite the offensive capabilities this weaponry would give France, the country says it has no intention of using it to harm other countries' satellites -- it's for self-defense only. France wants to be able to protect its satellites in the event that a hostile country tries to attack or otherwise sabotage them.

France's Minister of Defence Florence Parly discussed a few of the self-defense measures French satellites could take if interfered with. "If our satellites are threatened, we will consider blinding those of our opponents," she said in a statement. "This may involve the use of power lasers deployed from our satellites or from our patrol nano-satellites."

In addition to the €700 million mentioned above, France expects to spend an additional €4.3 billion on space defense by the year 2025, and by 2030, it wants this proposed defense technology to be fully adopted.

France isn't the only country that is looking at space with renewed interest. The US is increasing its investment in the field, too, and hopes to establish a Space Force of its own in the future.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/81199-france-wants-mount-guns-lasers-satellites-self-defense.html

 

[psycros]

If FRANCE, of all countries, is looking at this seriously then there's probably something going on the general public hasn't heard about. The fact that they mention sub-machine guns strongly implies they've been rattled by rumors of offensive orbital vehicles that are designed to compromise satellites. It wouldn't be that hard for a developed nation to send up drones capable of "boarding" targeted satellites and engaging in techno-mischief. Either that or its just France trying to create a new arms market - they make many millions annually on weapon sales.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

YEAH - OK lol

Haven't they learned anything from sci-fi movies?

Call of Duty: Ghosts?

Command & conquer: Tiberian Dawn?

Babylon 5: "Endgame"?

Justice League?

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory???

Eventually those "orbital defense platforms" will be turned against "The Eastern Seaboard"

 

[JaredTheDragon]

Amazing that it takes 11 years to mount weapons when it actually takes 11 minutes.

 

[Igrecman]

What a mess it will be when satellites get destroyed by machine guns, creating so many debris that it will destroy more satellites with time, and make going to orbit with a rocket very risky.

 

[Markoni35]

I think it's the US that wants to put this weaponry in space, but they don't want to sound disgusting, so they bribed France to ask for it first. If the proposal is approved for France, then United States would legalize their weaponry in the very next millisecond.

In fact, US will have their weaponry before France, because France yet needs to install it, while US has already installed it and just waiting for the "French proposal" to be approved.

 

[Igrecman]

I think it's the US that wants to put this weaponry in space, but they don't want to sound disgusting, so they bribed France to ask for it first. If the proposal is approved for France, then United States would legalize their weaponry in the very next millisecond.

In fact, US will have their weaponry before France, because France yet needs to install it, while US has already installed it and just waiting for the "French proposal" to be approved.

And the Russians and Chinese will do the same. At the same time it's also possible to destroy a satellite with a missile launched from the ground. So if there ever is another world war you can be sure than the first thing to get destroyed will be the enemy satellites. Consequently there will be so many debris in orbit that most satellites will get hit and it would be perhaps impossible to send new ones in orbit for decades. Think of all the consequences in our daily lives this would have. Weaponizing space must be forbidden at all costs.