Long considered a fertile ground for exploration and innovation, space is now considered as a warfare domain. The emergence of New Space has considerably increased access to space, opening up new opportunities for innovation but also enabling new threats to arise. In an increasingly unstable geopolitical context, MBDA considers space as part of its strategy, pursuing one clear ambition: to provide its home countries and their allies with the means to guarantee their technological and strategic sovereignty, today and in the future.

Space: a game-changing domain for the military

Space is a pillar of military operations on land, at sea, and in the air. It plays a vital role in intelligence gathering, in communications, in navigation or early warning. Today, the proliferation of actors increases the risk of collision, orbital pollution and hostile actions. Space has become a highly contested environment: from signal interference and orbital trajectory manipulation to co-orbital aggressions, the threats are real. This new environment requires an appropriate response to safeguard national strategic capabilities and ensure the integrity of space infrastructures.

MBDA’s expertise to face emerging space threats

Aware of the strategic developments, MBDA is committed to applying its expertise in air defence and its strong capacity for innovation to the space sector. The aim is to develop in-orbit protection and intervention capabilities to tackle new threats.
MBDA is already working with the armed forces on space-related issues, notably through its participation in the annual AsterX military exercise organised by the French Space Command. During this exercise, the Space Warfare Battlelab developed by MBDA simulates scenarios for action in low orbit. MBDA provides its expertise in trajectory calculation and propulsion technologies to refine the operational concepts to be implemented in space and develop interoperability between allies.

Developing innovative capabilities to secure space infrastructure

MBDA is also working with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and the start-up U-Space, leveraging its agility and ability to innovate, to validate operational defence scenarios as part of the TOUTATIS demonstration. This project aims to develop two satellites capable of monitoring and hunting in low orbit (located between 400 and 1,000 km). MBDA is thus fully involved in the development of SPLINTER (Space Platform for LEO intervention Testing and Evaluation of Response), a satellite equipped with large propulsion, sensors and laser devices, designed to address threats in low Earth orbit without creating new debris.

These initiatives represent the initial phase of a long-term strategy to secure strategic autonomy in space. With the growing risks and the increasing reliance of armed forces on space services, protecting free and secure access to space has become a priority. Strengthened by its historic mission to uphold sovereignty, MBDA is committed to playing a leading role in building a credible and autonomous European space defence.