To protect its satellites, France outlines ambitious space-weapons program

Enlarge / Florence Parly is the French defense minister. (credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)

After French President Emmanuel Macron called for a space high command to protect his nation's satellites earlier this month, military officials on Thursday released their plans in more detail.

As reported in the French financial newspaper Les Echos, the French Defense Minister, Florence Parly, outlined a new space weapons program that would allow the country to move from space surveillance to the active protection of its satellites.

"France is not embarking on a space arms race," Parly said, according to the publication. However, the projects outlined Thursday by French officials include swarms of nano-satellites that would patrol a few kilometers around French satellites, a ground-based laser system to blind snooping satellites, and perhaps even machine guns on board some satellites.

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