Space defense and European resilience: at the Esa Ministerial, it’s now up to the governments

The European Resilience from Space plan, presented by Josef Aschbacher, is worth €1.2 billion and aims to bring together existing and future satellite constellations to serve continental security as well.

BY EMILIO COZZI

On November 26 and 27, the European Space Agency’s Ministerial Council will take place in Bremen, Germany.
It is the event where member states set Esa’s budget for the following three years and decide which programs and missions to fund. These choices concern science, space and planetary exploration, Earth and climate monitoring, and the promotion of civil well-being. This November, however, the agenda will necessarily take a different turn, one that includes assessing the creation of a space infrastructure to strengthen Europe’s security and strategic autonomy.

Esa’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher, has outlined a proposal that individual member states will have to decide whether and how to finance. This time, countries will be asked to put figures and intentions down in black and white, with more detail than in the initial presentation of the initiative on October 28 at the European Resilience from Space Conference in Brussels. The project, called European Resilience from Space (Ers), aims to lay the groundwork for “a continuous cycle of space capability development for defense and resilience, with a horizon extending to 2035.”
It is an enormous undertaking, coming at a time when Europe is preparing to dedicate 5% of its Gross Domestic Product to defense. The hope is that part of that will be directed toward the Agency’s space programs, with the blessing of the European Commissioner responsible for space, Lithuanian Andrius Kubilius.

As already noted in these pages, this topic does not directly concern Esa’s institutional mandate. Yet the Agency’s activities, and in particular the infrastructures developed and launched with its support, have dual value, both civil and military. Aschbacher made a point of dispelling any ambiguity on this front during the States General on Defense, Space, and Cybersecurity held in Frascati on September 12. Now the ball is in the national governments’ court: how much of their space technologies are they willing to pool, now that these have become central to military affairs as well?

A plan worth 1.2 billion euros

Considering Esa’s total budget, which was just under 17 billion euros three years ago, the proposal is an impressive one: 1.2 billion euros to provide, through a dual use “system of systems,” advanced space capabilities in strategic sectors.

The program is divided into three main components.
The first, concerning Earth observation, surveillance and reconnaissance, has an ambitious goal: a persistent capability, operational in all weather conditions, with low latency and a revisit time of less than 30 minutes. The request amounts to 750 million euros to begin developing a constellation of Earth observation satellites. In the meantime, Aschbacher said, “we will start by pooling and sharing existing capabilities. If some satellite systems are used at 30 to 40 percent of their capacity for national needs, the remaining 60 percent could be made available to others, and in return, other countries will do the same.”

The second component of the program, called Leo Pnt (Low Earth orbit positioning, navigation and timing), concerns secure navigation and positioning, with funding of 250 million euros aimed at ensuring uninterrupted service for naval fleets, aircraft, embassies, and contingents around the world. The goal is to create a low Earth orbit constellation to improve and strengthen Galileo. This new segment, effectively a backup network for both civilian and military applications, will provide additional support to the European constellation, making it more resistant to interference and cyberattacks.

Communications, the third component of Ers, will also need to be more “protected and responsive.” Current technologies do not allow Europe to keep up with Starlink or Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk’s satellite network for the US Defense Department. For this chapter, the funding request amounts to 200 million euros.

All of these capabilities are designed to “contribute to the protection of citizens, infrastructure, supply chains, institutions and Europe’s strategic interests,” Aschbacher said in his speech, which opened with references to the Russian threat at Europe’s eastern borders and the need for the Union to become less dependent on the United States.

National ambitions and common defense

Esa, he clarified, does not intend to replace sovereign capabilities: some key security systems will remain under national control. However, the Agency could act as a “bridge” to coordinate and expand European capabilities that a single state might not be able to manage alone. It also aims to counter the fragmentation that has long prevented Europe from being fully cohesive in its approach to foreign and defense policy.

Systems such as Galileo, Copernicus, Iris², and national and industrial architectures will be leveraged to build a coherent European infrastructure for space security. The proposal does not require new international legal agreements: Esa’s institutional framework already exists and allows subscriptions to the ERS to be confirmed as early as November, with contracts signed immediately with industry. The launch of the first satellites is planned by 2028.

As already mentioned, Bremen will be the stage for the governments of the member states, who will be called to balance national ambitions with the need to act collectively, by funding a space defense program that could become the seed of a common approach that has so far been missing. Sharing knowledge and technology beyond the skies, before doing so with armies on the ground.