Space defence: How is the EU boosting its military space capabilities?

Published on 07/04/2026 - 12:10 GMT+2

Europe is stepping up efforts to physique up its subject abstraction assets, driven by Russia's warfare successful Ukraine and its determination to region itself from its longstanding dependence connected the US successful the abstraction domain.

Today, European governments, equipped forces and societies marque dense usage of space-enabled services, including outer communications.

Yet, for years, it was perceived arsenic a utile summation alternatively than an indispensable strategical asset. This position has lone changed since the KA-SAT satellite web cyberattackin February 2022, conscionable earlier Russia's full-scale penetration of Ukraine.

The targeted onslaught connected Viasat's US-operated web disrupted telecommunications, vigor infrastructure, and net entree crossed Europe, leaving Ukrainian nationalist authorities and citizens offline and silencing them astatine a captious infinitesimal arsenic Russian soldiers poured into the country.

At the opening of 2026, during the European Space Conference, European Union Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, called for the 27 subordinate states to travel unneurotic to enactment towards space independence.

However, greater European autonomy successful space-based subject capabilities is inactive a agelong mode away, according to a caller survey from the defence and information think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), perchance reaching beyond the precocious 2030s.

Which countries are investing successful abstraction defence?

Nevertheless, European countries are acceptable to put astatine slightest €95.46 cardinal ($109bn) successful abstraction capabilities by 2030.

Germany has committed to put €35bn successful abstraction assets by 2030 and published its Space Safety and Security Strategy successful November 2025, portion France has accrued its abstraction defence fund to €10.2bn during the aforesaid period.

At the EU level, the European Commission plans to put €10.6bn successful the caller EU unafraid outer constellation, to beryllium delivered by 2030.

European Space Agency members person besides pledged €1.2bn to its caller dual civil-military-use European Resilience from Space programme.

But closing the spread with the United States won't beryllium easy: sharing the defence load successful abstraction could necessitate astatine slightest an further €8.67bn, and achieving afloat autonomy whitethorn request a further €21.67bn.

In addition, some figures exclude astir ground-segment infrastructure, personnel, training, cyber resilience and broader programme overheads.

Experts assertion that afloat autonomy would besides necessitate adjacent much time, extending good into the precocious 2030s astatine the earliest.

"These investments are not structured astir a coherent strategy to adjacent the astir consequential capableness gaps wrong a decade", the IISS said.