The Air and Space Academy has consistently voiced firm support for European cooperation in defense systems programmes, provided that an efficient organizational structure is set up to manage such programmes. Space systems to meet defence and security requirements are not weapons programmes in the traditional sense since they involve setting in orbit space systems that are shared between participants. Their development through European cooperation should thus be simpler, and yet the many failed attempts in the past thirty years prove the contrary.

The present file attempts an analysis of this situation and presents recommendations for a whole new approach for the establishment of future space assets in the service of defense and security, which should facilitate their decision and allow to maximize the synergies that result from the European industrial groupings in recent years.