When Elon Musk restricted Russian forces’ access to Starlink earlier this year, the battlefield effects were felt immediately. Ukraine’s military reported a roughly 50% drop in the enemy’s offensive capacity, which relied heavily on space-based imagery for reconnaissance and operational planning.
For Europe, said MEP Christophe Grudler (Renew/FR), the episode underscored a growing vulnerability: “It is absolutely strategic to be in space with strong assets.”
However, most European capitals often lack not only the means to respond independently to space-related crises but in some cases even the tools to understand them in the first place.
“If you want to fight against something, you need to know what's happening,” said Grudler. “Today, in Europe, we do not have enough [sovereign] space data. We use American data for space [awareness].”
With critical infrastructure — from smartphones and financial systems to energy grids and military communications — reliant on space, disruptions such as jamming, spoofing or direct satellites attacks could cascade across entire societies.
That growing exposure, alongside rising burden-sharing expectations within NATO, is forcing a shift in Europe’s approach.
Long focused on the peaceful use of space, European governments are now developing dual-use capabilities for both civilian and military needs. But coordination remains patchy, risking costly redundancies.
The EU lacks a unified space strategy
The European Union, the European Space Agency, Germany, France and the UK are collectively set to spend at least $109 billion on strengthening its space defense and dual-use capabilities by 2030. However, greater spending doesn’t automatically translate into effective capabilities.
While defense remains a national competence, European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius has warned against member states developing individual military space capabilities without a collective vision.
"Member states want to have those capabilities, and that's very good,” Kubilius told The Parliament on the sidelines of the European Space Conference in Brussels in late January. “But then we need to see how those capabilities should be interoperable, and how we manage to create pan-European systems out of those national assets.”
Yet European countries still lack coordination and a shared approach to boost space capabilities and aligning planned national investments, according to a recent report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. More worryingly it warns that without a coherent strategy to close capability gaps, Europe risks ending up within the next decade with “an aggregation of national systems rather than an integrated operational architecture.”
However, political initiative is growing beyond the national level, said Giulia Pavesi of the Vienna-based European Space Policy Institute.
Last November, the ESA expanded its mandate to develop a military-grade reconnaissance satellite network. Within five years, the EU is expected to launch IRIS², a secure communications system designed to detect, monitor and respond to both space-based and terrestrial threats.
More of the same is needed.
Analysts, EU policymakers and industry sources agree that Europe must secure launch capabilities, integrated command-and-control systems and tighter on-orbit and terrestrial security. In the longer term, efforts will need to scale and be better coordinated to allow rapid responses to emerging space threats.
“It is essential to strengthen the European industrial base, reduce critical technological dependencies and develop an integrated and resilient ecosystem linking civil, military and commercial dimensions,” said MEP Elena Donazzan (ECR/IT).
Still, she added, the push for greater autonomy shouldn’t translate into protectionism. “We must preserve longstanding partnerships with like-minded countries, while also beginning to reflect on a balanced European preference in the space domain.”
That sentiment was echoed by Engin Eroglu (Renew/DE). “The European Union is, in the event of a crisis, both blind and deaf without the assistance of third countries,” he said. “This is an untenable situation. It means that around €6.8 trillion the EU plans to invest in defense [by 2035] could be rendered inoperable.”
Towards European space sovereignty
Within its limited mandate, the European Commission is pushing for greater coordination. Later this year, Brussels is expected to propose a “space shield” to pool national and European capabilities, including a “virtual” network of national space commands that could be mobilized for joint defense.
So far, national space commanders from France, Germany, Italy and Spain have welcomed the idea of stronger joint command-and-control structures. Berlin, however, is urging caution.
Germany’s space commander, Major General Michael Traut, made the priority clear at the European Space Conference in Brussels: build strong national capabilities first, then connect them.
“Collaboration has a precondition — credible national capabilities,” Traut told the audience. “Only if you have something to offer can you expect something in return.”
Germany and France are already moving in that direction, planning to invest €35 billion and €16 billion respectively by 2030 to strengthen their military space capabilities. This includes a joint ground-based early warning radar program, “Jewel.” Poland is also preparing to launch its first military satellite by 2027, as Warsaw seeks to expand its role in the European space sector.
But most European countries are still lagging. Investments in counterspace and offensive capabilities — such as AI-enabled systems, inspector satellites and on-orbit operations — remain limited.
That gap is becoming harder to ignore as great-power rivals China and Russia rapidly expand their capabilities.
For some commanders, that reality demands a shift away from a purely defensive mindset.
“To support multi-domain operations, we must be able to fight in space,” said Spain’s Major General Isaac Crespo Zaragoza. “As well as defend and protect our assets.”
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