Air and space colonel Guillaume Bourdeloux, head of military space operations at Space Command, wonders to what extent Ukraine could be the first theatre in space. At least that's what some people are saying. think tanks US, pitting a Western coalition against Russia. The colonel notes a fundamental change in this conflict: our dependence on space, "an environment that remains largely unregulated" in all sectors, both civilian and military:
"We are now dependent on space, and this dependence will continue to grow. We were a little dependent before, but we are also dependent on space for military purposes, and we will be increasingly so. We are dependent on space for reasons of mobility, in relation to GPS for example, precision, synchronisation of effects and coordination, because we need to be able to communicate, and a lot of our communications go through space, for anticipation and intelligence purposes, because we need to be able to observe and understand what is happening in any given theatre. This goes hand in hand with the digitisation of weapons systems and the accentuation of connectivity on all fronts, and relies heavily on space."
For Colonel Bourdeloux, "there are two complete space coalitions in this war, in almost head-on opposition. In a way, they are neutralising each other. Given that all the belligerents are modern nations, and their dependence on space, no one has an interest in a major conflict that would have catastrophic consequences in space". Paraphrasing World War II US General Montgomery, who was talking about the air, he says: "If we lose the war in space, we will lose it, and we will lose it fast."
