Paris (AFP)

And now, space. The French army on Friday added to its fundamental attributions a new field of operation, larger than all the others combined, and the object of strong international envy.

The Air Force staff has become the Air and Space Army staff, a term that designates nothing less than a new frontier.

"At the heart of dreams but also desires, the space must not become the scene of savage struggles", declared the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly during a speech on the basis of Salon-de-Provence (south- is). "Espionage, sabotage, pollution: the threats are tangible. Faced with this new order of things, we must be ready".

In an interview with the daily La Provence, the minister had previously mentioned the "passage from a vision of a + common good + space, at the service of science, to a space in which the powers continue to compete for world supremacy" .

The developments of the last few days confirm it: China launched a probe for Mars on Thursday, the United Arab Emirates launched their own called Hope on Monday, for the first Arab space mission, and the United States will also launch one, named March 2020 , July 30.

But ambitions are not limited to exploration. In March 2019, India joined the very closed club of nations capable of bringing down a satellite in space by missile fire.

On Thursday, the US Space Command said it had "evidence" that Moscow "conducted a non-destructive test of an anti-satellite weapon from space" on July 15. "Propaganda," replied Moscow, which says the tests were not threatening and "did not violate" international law.

The incident, however, recalls another, which occurred in 2017, during which the Russian "spy satellite" Louch-Olympe attempted to approach the Franco-Italian military satellite Athena-Fidus.

Since then, Paris has reacted. "We are by no means engaged in an arms race," Ms. Parly said in her interview. But while reaffirming France's attachment to "peaceful use of space", she considers it essential to fully identify "the threats with which our country is potentially facing".

France will therefore equip itself with patrol satellites capable of "detecting, characterizing and attributing to their authors this type of unfriendly maneuver". It will be equipped with 360-degree cameras and "power lasers" to keep it at bay or dazzle "those who try to get too close". Last year, a government source also told AFP of "machine guns capable of breaking the solar panels of a satellite on approach".

- From competition to confrontation -

"We are changing the world in terms of space", they say to Ms. Parly's office. "Space is, more and more, a field of competition, a contested field and potentially a field of confrontation".

A law, which the ministry hopes to have adopted by early 2021, will legally integrate the new name. But there was no longer any question of waiting.

Based in Toulouse, the large space command will include a workforce of 200 people at the start, 500 in 2025. The subject will gain momentum in military schools. And the sector's investments will increase from 3.6 billion euros, initially provided for in the military programming law (2019-2025) to 4.3 billion.

With its two billion euros of annual investments in military and civilian space, France remains far from the top three: 50 billion for the United States, 10 for China and 4 for Russia, according to figures of the French government.

But if for the moment, Paris is forbidden to attack in space and strike on earth from the cosmos, Ms. Parly claims the right to "develop means of self-defense".

The rest remains to be invented. The high military authorities anticipate a troubled future. "Space being both a major economic stake and an environment essential to military superiority, competition becomes confrontation", noted in early 2019 General Michel Friedling, head of the Joint Space Command.

"Any high-intensity conflict, involving a power endowed with first-rate space capabilities, will inevitably spread to space."

© 2020 AFP