Modern conflicts are already being fought in space and the next wars will begin there, French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday, singling out the threat posed by Russia and announcing a multibillion-euro increase in spending on military activities in space.
“The war of today is already being fought in space, and the war of tomorrow will begin in space,” Macron said in Toulouse, France’s space and aviation hub, which is home to its new space military command centre.
“Space is no longer a sanctuary, it has become a battlefield,” Macron said.
He said that Russia in the wake of its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine was carrying out “espionage” activities in space.
Russian space vehicles were monitoring French satellites, there was mass jamming of GPS signals and cyberattacks against space infrastructure, he added.
Macron also pointed to the “particularly shocking Russian threat of nuclear weapons in space, the effects of which would be disastrous for the whole world”.
