Galileo to have military role
Europe’s rival to the US satellite positioning system does have a military role, the European Commission acknowledged on Wednesday, as a race to dominate space heated up.
Jacques Barrot, transport commissioner, said €9bn (L6bn, $12bn) of public money should be used to launch Galileo, which was essential for Europe’s independence in the space age.
“You cannot exclude a user because he is military,” he said. “It will be civilian controlled . . . but there will be military users.”
The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, unanimously recommended national governments end stalled talks with a divided private sector consortium and build the €3.6bn network of 30 satellites themselves. They would then contract a private operator to run the system.
The Commission pointed out that China and Russia were developing satellite navigation systems. Abandoning Galileo “would mean that the EU would be dependent on military/dual use foreign systems and technologies for applications vital to the running of the society of tomorrow”.
“Moreover, Galileo is a pillar of the emerging European space policy and signifies Europe’s ambitions in space, technology and innovation,” a paper for transport ministers said. It foresaw significant revenues from military users.
However, the UK and Denmark, among others, oppose extra public funding and any challenge to the relationship with the US, which allows Nato partners to use the more accurate, encrypted GPS signal. A 2004 pact with Washington says all navigation devices will be compatible with GPS and Galileo.
The 27-member bloc has already spent €2.5bn on Galileo research since the late 1990s. It has been delayed for five years by infighting over where control centres should be built, but Mr Barrot said it would still be in action by 2012. “Member states seem to think they should get back all [the money] they put in. The benefits will come later,” he said. The satellite navigation market should be worth €450bn by 2025, he claimed, and the EU could win a third of that.
However, the consortium of European aerospace giant EADS, France’s Thales and Alcatel-Lucent, Britain’s Inmarsat, Italy’s Finmeccanica, Spain’s AENA and Hispasat, and a German group led by Deutsche Telekom, said the potential return did not justify the commercial risk.
Robert Bell, a former chairman of Nato’s satellite warfare committee, said the argument that the US could switch off GPS in time of war was false. “GPS is not a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pentagon, it is used across government,” he said. President Bill Clinton in 1996 pledged not to deny the free signal to third countries.
The US would in any case be able to jam Galileo if it felt it posed a threat.
Mr Barrot remains confident of getting approval from a majority of ministers on June 8.
By Andrew Bounds in Brussels
copy paste