The NATO commander, who has long complained that it’s easier to be a tech entrepreneur in the United States than in Europe, pitched a European Defense Act to the European Commission. The legislation would “create the conditions for the emergence of new tech in defense by setting financial, regulatory and tax conditions that encourage young entrepreneurs to develop dual-use technology for Europe,” he said.
He also backs the U.S. call for Europeans to create a space marketplace modeled after its own, which allows the U.S. Space Command to benefit from commercial technology for space domain awareness and battlefield intelligence.
“The Americans have asked us to work on making a space marketplace like their Joint Commercial Operations, where you can buy services through speed dating,” Vandier said. “That’s interesting.”
NATO’s ‘active role’
NATO is playing an increasingly active role in space, according to Vandier, but there is more work ahead to properly divide up tasks among allies.
“We’re equipping ourselves with the tools we need to understand and maneuver strategically, in particular through space domain awareness. We’ll be able to see, understand and coordinate action, and tell the 32 allies: ‘This is what’s going on, this is what happened,'” he explained. “That’s what we call attribution.”
NATO, as an alliance, can then decide to take counter-measures. “That’s going to give us power: It wouldn’t have the same scope or political significance if only France or the United States were to react,” Vandier said.
