Galileo as a pillar of European security

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26.01.2023

Galileo as a pillar of European security

At the 15th “European Space Conference” in Brussels, GfR Managing Director Rolf Kozlowski highlighted the importance of the Galileo program for Europe’s autonomy. In a panel on “Space as a Service Provider for Europe’s Security and Defense Capability”, he emphasized the reliabil-ity of the European satellite navigation system.

“Since the start of the war in Ukraine,” says Rolf Kozlowski, “we have been thinking on the continent about how we can improve European security and strength. Of course, we need to become faster and more flexible in many places, but we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Galileo is already there.”

Speaking to the other panelists, including Patrick Chatard Moulin and Guillaume de la Brosse of the European Commission, Kozlowski underscored the relevance of functioning “operations” systems, saying, “In space, ‘opera-tions’ are the constant factor across all projects and programs, whether it’s Earth observation, communications, commercial applications, or even defense. It’s like the work you do around the house at home: you see it when the work isn’t done.”

Participants of Session 15 “Space at the service of European defense and security”.

Security and defense right from the start
Rolf Kozlowski emphasized as a major advantage that the topics of security and defense had been anchored in the Galileo program from the very beginning: “It was also designed for this purpose – today we see how right this approach was.” The highly motivated GfR team, together with its partners Spaceopal GmbH and Telespazio, operates the highly complex Galileo system reliably even in times of crisis – as demonstrated by its operation during the challenging Corona times.

DLR GfR as a partner of the EU Space Conference for the first time
GfR appeared for the first time as a partner at the 15th European Space Conference in Brussels. The annual European Space Conference is considered one of the most important discussion forums in the European space community, and DLR GfR was represented there by a team of seven.