By Joey Roulette and Cassell Bryan-Low
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -France and the United States are planning a second joint mission of coordinated satellite maneuvers in orbit, part of a growing push to sharpen allied spying capabilities as China expands its own military footprint in space, a senior U.S. general told Reuters.
The operation would be the Pentagon’s third known mission conducted in space with an ally following its first-ever joint maneuver with two spacecraft in orbit late last year, also involving France. The U.S. Space Command conducted a joint mission with the UK earlier this month.
Space is an increasingly contested military domain, as a soaring number of satellites crucial for communications, missile warning and battlefield intelligence face threats from the world’s top space powers. China, Russia and the U.S. have demonstrated anti-satellite weapons and launched maneuverable spacecraft, raising worries that an attack during conflict could disrupt GPS navigation or sever channels of communication relied upon by forces on Earth.
Maneuvering spacecraft with sharper precision and marshalling international alliances have become key fronts in what officials regard as a new global space race, with the U.S. and its allies facing intense rivalry from China and Russia.
“We are planning an effort with France right now,” Lieutenant General Douglas Schiess, commander of a U.S. Space Force component that works with Space Command to conduct secretive military space operations, told Reuters in an interview. He did not elaborate.
France is Europe’s largest government spender on space. Further operations with other nations could follow, he said, adding, “I can see us doing more.”
Western military space officials, including ones from Europe as well as the U.S. and Canada, have been issuing warnings about the increase of threats in space to a range of satellites, from military assets to commercial satellite constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink that collectively are used by hundreds of millions globally.
French Space Command declined to comment on any plans. Of the first operation, it said it is training with the United States to strengthen cooperation, learn how to coordinate action and to “demonstrate our strategic solidarity.”
French Space Command “needs to prepare for military space operations in a real-life scenario,” the unit said.
When asked about the initial operation in a recent Reuters interview in Paris, the unit’s commander, Major General Vincent Chusseau, declined to discuss details but said “we consider it a success.”
That initial exercise, known as a rendezvous and proximity operation, involved a U.S. and a French military satellite approaching each other near a “strategic competitor’s” spacecraft, U.S. Space Command commander Stephen Whiting revealed in April. Schiess declined to identify the third nearby satellite in his interview with Reuters last week.
In a second operation conducted between September 4 and September 12, a U.S. Space Command-operated satellite moved to check whether a British military communications satellite called SKYNET 5A was operating in orbit as intended, according to the UK. Both satellites were in geostationary orbit – at an altitude of nearly 36,000 kilometers above the Earth – and involved both satellites traveling at around three kilometers per second, the UK said.
While the two countries did not identify which U.S. satellite was involved in the operation with Britain, a commercial provider of space situational awareness software, called Comspoc, said it observed a highly maneuverable U.S. surveillance satellite called USA 271 move close to the UK’s SKYNET 5A between September 5 and September 11.
When the operation was announced last week, the head of UK Space Command, Major General Paul Tedman, said the operation was a first of its kind for his unit and “represents a significant increase in operational capability.” He added: “We are now, with our allies, conducting advanced orbital operations to protect and defend our shared national and military interests in space.”
(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington and Cassell Bryan-Low in Paris; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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