France plans to conduct AsterX 2024 military space exercise

The exercise, which will take place at the French National Centre for Space Studies in the city of Toulouse, is expected to bring together 140 participants and 30 foreign observers

France and another 15 countries will take part in the AsterX 2024 exercise on countering threats in space on March 4-15, the French Space Command said.

“AsterX 2024 has the objective of perfecting the training of the CDE in a realistic and complex simulated space environment, in order to meet the new challenges emerging from increasingly numerous and diverse threats,” French Space Commander Major General Philippe Adam pointed out.

According to the exercise presentation, its fictional geopolitical scenario is “inspired by current and future threats covering the full spectrum of space warfare.” The drills will feature “a simulated space environment with 4,000 space objects and 30 ground-based space surveillance, detection and tracking sensors,” and will also include “23 space events in every possible orbit to simulate 14 different threat types.”

Apart from France, the exercise will involve Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as representatives of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.

The exercise, which will take place at the French National Centre for Space Studies in the city of Toulouse, is expected to bring together 140 participants and 30 foreign observers.

Presently USA, Russia, China and India are the top four Space Powers of the World with France and Japan in the second rung.