The three conditions for a French commitment to anti-missile defense
The anti-missile defense project proceeds from a painful choice to read the Report that the French senator Josselin de Rohan has just published, prior to a broader discussion that the Senate is starting (1). Either France participates and it risks a budgetary drift, or it does not participate and it risks both strategic withdrawal and loss of market for the French defense industry. Between budgetary Charybdis and strategic Scylla, the choice of the senator is made: it is a commitment linked to three conditions.
1° Avoid siphoning off defense budgets
For the senator, it is necessary in particular to ensure, in the definition of the command and control system (C2), the conditions under which its own national resources will be connected and the rules of engagement. We must also keep financial control of NATO investments - common funding should in any case be limited to C2 - and avoid the " siphoning of European defense budgets as for the JSF fighter aircraft program.
He also specifies (which is the French leitmotif) that the anti-missile defense must intervene " as a complement and not as a substitute for deterrence ", and that it is necessary to associate Russia with it, which supposes having " a common vision of the threat, clear rules for the circulation of information – by whom, to whom and in what cases – and finally robust and predefined rules of engagement ».
2° Invest "blue white red"
The realization of the M3R radar must be “ accelerated to be able to autonomously implement the SAMP/T theater anti-missile defense system at an earlier date, in order to “ consolidate the French contribution to NATO's ALTBMD program ". The effort to acquire space warning capability in the second half of 2010 " must be maintained and if possible accelerated » in order to honor the scheduled appointments.
France must develop its skills in interception technologies. The envelope devoted to upstream studies should be increased, compared to what is planned: approximately 50 million euros in research and technology credits (per year).
3° Make Europeans aware of working together
Italy and France are already building the SAMP/T theater anti-missile defense system; " this partnership should be strengthened ". Anti-missile defense could also be dealt with within the framework of the France-United Kingdom strategic partnership”.
In general, France should make all its European partners aware of the stakes represented by the possession of certain specific means of anti-ballistic missile defense “says the Senate. The advanced alert appears as " a priority area for cooperation », as well as the field of interception.
(1) The French Senate launches a reflection on anti-missile defense
