Written by: Manuel Dias

Supervised by: Victoriano Vicente Botella Berenguer and Benjamin Robitaille

Edited by: Anne-Sophie Cubert

Abstract

Current developments in space-to-space kinetic and non-kinetic weapons are changing the nature of military conduct in outer space. Additionally, the flexibility, maneuverability and sustainability made possible by in-orbit refuelling, on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing capabilities coupled with new technologies like military space vehicles, hunter-killer and nesting doll satellites and converged directed energy weapons, realign the space domain with more traditional operational domains of warfare. Although the nature of many military systems is by nature classified, one can infer by the current gamut of Western and adversarial projects already implemented but also in development that an operational paradigm shift is taking place in space. As such, European interoperability in space has never been so crucial — but similarly so is the ability to militarise space while guided by a stern moral compass, where legal accountability is ambiguous.