Report Says EU Could Pursue Space Weapons Option

A Netherlands-based group published a report Monday contending that European Union space policies could eventually enable member states to deploy missile defenses and other military hardware in Earth's orbit, the London Telegraph reported (see GSN, June 26, 2007).

"EU-financed communication and spy satellites are slowly becoming reality and in the long term the inclusion of space-based missile defense and other more offensive uses of space are real options for an increasingly ambitious EU military space policy," states the report released by the Transnational Institute.

The European Union six years ago backed the deployment of Galileo, a system of satellites intended as an alternative to the U.S.-built Global Positioning System, according to the Telegraph.

"While Galileo is generally presented as a genuinely civilian program, it now appears highly militarized," said Frank Slijper, the report's author. "The public denial of these important capabilities shows how much Brussels and many European capitals are afraid to tell the public that Galileo is to become an extremely important tool in future warfare by European military forces" (Urmee Khan, London Telegraph, Nov. 21).

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