The French Ministry of Defense has been opening up in the last few years, in an effort to spur innovation from startups and attract new talent to the armed forces and the defense industry. Lastly, it organized a”Defense Factory” event, which took place in Paris on the 17-18 January 2020. In addition to the stands from various companies and military units, there were a few roundtable with defense officials. One of the most interesting was a roundtable on French military space between a senior officer and three junior officers in different space-related organizations of the ministry.

The panel consisted, from left to right in the picture below, in:

– Lieutenant-Colonel Yvan, from the Joint Space Command (Commandement Interarmées de l’Espace)

– Lieutenant de Vaisseau Alban, from the military intelligence service (Direction du Renseignement Militaire), imagery intelligence section

– Sous-Lieutenant William, from the Space Surveillance Center (Centre Opérationnel de Surveillance Militaire…