France's DGA Remains Hopeful of Cooperating with Britain in Military Satcom

摘要

The French arms procurement agency, DGA, operating under what officials said is a deadline with little flexibility, remains hopeful of striking a partnership this year with the British government on future military satellite telecommunications. Both nations' concerns about sharing strategic communications capacity means a fully bilateral satellite system is out of the question, officials said. But one promising avenue being pursued is the idea of sharing the cost of an in-orbit spare spacecraft. "By doing this, we can save nearly half of what we would save in a fully integrated system," said Jean-Pierre Devaux, DGA's director of strategy. Addressing a space policy conference here Feb. 13 organized by Euroconsult and the French aerospace industries organization, GIFAS, Devaux said France's existing Syracuse 3 satellites' in-orbit life expectancy will force a decision on a next-generation system by late this year or early in 2015 for replacement satellites to launched in 2018-2019.