Euroviews. Europe must work together and develop space tech for its defence

Josef Aschbacher, the director-general of the European Space Agency (ESA), recently said that Europe needed deeper cooperation in space if the continent was to counter its rivals, including Russia and China. 

In an interview for a major international outlet, he noted that in many space sectors, Europe is highly competent, even a world leader. But in security and defence, in particular, it lacked a "unified capability".

In recent history, European governments have resisted pooling resources for weapons production because of anxiety about sovereign control. 

This is understandable. Europe is a continent, not a country, and one with a history of internecine conflict that’s still fresh in the memory. 

But the reality is that this policy has stunted the efficiency and scale of production across the continent, which has been to the detriment of all its constituent countries.

In funding defence technology, Europe is lagging behind its rivals. European spending on space, both by national governments and the private sector, lags behind that of the US and China, the world’s main space superpowers. 

The budget for the 22-country ESA this year is €7.8 billion – less than a third of NASA’s $27.2bn (€25.2bn).

Defence technology, it goes without saying, does not create itself. Companies need money to develop the technology in the first place, but more importantly, they need money to scale. 

The climate technology sector provides a useful parallel here. As a recent McKinsey report noted, we have the technology (much of it space technology) needed to solve the climate challenge; the problem is bringing emerging tech to scale, which costs money. In defence, the situation is similar. 

The technology exists. European countries are leaders in