Credit: Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace
As part of its Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030, the European Commission has unveiled the European Space Shield, a new initiative aimed at protecting space assets and services against “growing threats.”
During a Joint Communication by the European Commission and the European External Action Service, the diplomatic arm of the EU, the Preserving Peace – Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 was introduced. The roadmap outlined four flagship defence initiatives: the European Drone Defence Initiative, the Eastern Flank Watch, the European Air Shield, and the European Space Shield. These initiatives were conceived in response to the findings of the White Paper on European Defence Readiness 2030, which was published in March 2025, and form part of the European Union’s broader ReArm Europe programme, which aims to mobilise €800 billion in spending to strengthen Europe’s sovereign defence capabilities.
The first reference to the development of the European Space Shield was made by European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius during a speech at the European Space Conference in January.
“All these new ventures are building blocks towards a European Space Shield to unite our defence efforts in space. I have already met many of you from the space sector, and it is clear: Europe needs you to be safe. There can be no defence without space. And there is no space without industry. The European Union is with you.”
A day later, at the same event, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Commission Vice-President, further outlined the initiative, stating, “to defend ourselves in space, we are now developing a new European Space Shield.” As part of her address, Kallas outlined three key priorities for the programme:
- “One, it is imperative that we have a near real-time awareness of who is doing what in space that could possibly pose a threat.”
- “Second, how do we respond to an attack? There are three elements here, attribution, retaliation, and mutual defence.”
- “The third priority is to work more closely together internally, bilaterally, and multilaterally.”
In the Preserving Peace – Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 document, the one-sentence pitch for the European Space Shield outlines setting up and protecting a comprehensive set of European space capabilities that serve defence applications. The initiative, it explains, will complement the dual-use space capabilities provided by the European Union to all Member States, primarily navigation, Earth observation, and secure communications. It will also support Member States in developing interoperable national defence capabilities focused on space domain awareness, countering jamming and spoofing, and conducting in-space operations such as servicing and inspection.
According to the roadmap, the European Drone Defence Initiative and the Eastern Flank Watch have been identified as priority flagship programmes to be rolled out in the first quarter of 2026, with an initial capacity expected to be reached by the end of 2026. The European Space Shield will be introduced in the second quarter of 2026, along with the European Air Shield. The Commission has not yet announced a proposed budget for the European Space Shield, nor has it disclosed a list of the participating Member States and the associated industrial partners leading the initiative.