Amid growing geopolitical tensions, especially after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the European Space Agency (ESA) has begun to redefine its role in European security and defense. At a meeting with EU officials in Warsaw on April 15th, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher unveiled ambitious plans to increase the agency’s budget, with an eye on developing a network of military-grade reconnaissance satellites. The funding package ESA aspires to could reach €21 billion, a record amount.
This approach has been partly driven by the notion that Europe lags behind in the space race compared to powers such as the United States and China. The Ukraine war and Elon Musk’s threats to cut Ukraine’s access to Starlink have also brought to the forefront the need for Europe to strengthen its capabilities in space.
Aschbacher’s plan seeks to create a constellation of reconnaissance satellites capable of providing high-resolution imagery in real-time, a capability that, according to the ESA leader, does not currently exist in Europe and would be a ‘game changer’ in terms of security and defense. Undoubtedly, it is a similar project to Musk’s Starlink and Starshield.
The recent Draghi Report criticized the fragmentation of the European space sector and suggested that ESA should abandon its ‘geographic return’ policy, which guarantees contracts to the countries that contribute the most money. This policy has been seen as a brake on the sector’s competitiveness and efficiency, and as a step towards a back-door unification of the European Union through technical or technological bodies.
The European Commission considers space a key axis in its defense strategy, as reflected in its Space Strategy for Security and Defence. This initiative seeks to strengthen Europe’s space autonomy, promoting greater integration of space capabilities to support both civilian and military missions. Observation, navigation, and communications satellites will be crucial in this new approach, especially in an increasingly volatile security environment.
