The White Paper on Defense and National Security [LBDSN] From 2008 had underlined the need to provide France with an advanced alert detection capacity, “interoperable” with the means implemented by certain allied countries, in order to follow “the evolution of ballistic threats, determine the origin of the shots and promote the alert of the populations”.
Such a capacity is based on a Transhorizon radar, like “Nostradamus” which, installed in Normandy, is able to identify ballistic missiles as well as any device evolving in the very high altitude [THA] 3,000 km away. This means can be supplemented by satellites with infrared sensor [IR] To detect possible missile departures.
The objective of the 2008 LBDSN was to have a broader assessment of appreciation by freeing, by 2020, American means, such as the DSP-I satellites [Defense Support Program – Improved] then sbirs [Space-Based Infrared System].
However, at the time of the publication of this white paper, a program was already underway. Called a spiral [Système préparatoire infrarouge pour l’alerte]it was based on two microsatellites which, put into orbit in 2009, should make it possible to build a large bank of infrared images of the earth in order to then define the technical specifications of a future satellite of detection and advanced alert whose design was to start in 2016.
Only, the spiral program was not following the budgetary credits to develop this capacity that has missed. However, the latter would be very useful currently, with the proliferation of ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons.
Hence the Odin’s Eye program, launched in 2021 and funded up to around 100 million euros by the European Defense Fund [FEDef]. Despite the advance taken by France in terms of advanced space alert, the management of this project was entrusted to the German OHB System AG.
Besides Germany and France [avec l’ONERA, ArianeGroup, Thales, Thales Alenia Space France, Airbus Defence & Space SAS, MBDA et Lynred]Italy, Spain, Austria, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Poland and Norway participate in this project.
Initially, Odin’s Eye had to go hand in hand with Hydef [European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor]another project funded by the Fedef aimed at developing a solution to intercept hypersonic weapons. To everyone’s surprise, he was entrusted to the Spaniard Sener Aeroespacial, MBDA France having been dismissed by the European Commission. Finally, having challenged this decision, the French industrialist obtained success, the Brussels executive having launched a second project, called Hydis² [HYpersonic Defense Interceptor Study].
Be that as it may, given the evolution of ballistic and hypersonic threats, Odin’s Eye is undoubtedly more than ever necessary. In any case, this is what the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, and his French counterpart, Sébastien Lecornu, said during a working meeting held in Osnabrück on July 24.
Work day with my German counterpart Boris Pistorius, who did me the honor of welcoming me in his hometown of Osnabrück, in preparation for the Franco-German Defense and Security Council scheduled for late August in Toulon.
Joint visit to the Rheinmetall factory… pic.twitter.com/hlghtTujqa
– Souncil Sweetener (@Sebling) July 24, 2025
“During their discussion, the two ministers also mentioned the early alert system ‘Odin’s Eye’. Lecornu stressed that Europeans should be able to quickly detect missile attacks “while” for the moment, they depend completely on the United States in this regard, “the German Defense Ministry summed up.
According to the same source, Mr. Pistorius considered that it was a “key capacity which should be developed jointly. A priori, according to the press from across the Rhine, France could integrate radar technology [sans doute Nostradamus] to the system from the Odin’s Eye project. We will probably know more during the next Franco-German defense council, which will be held in Toulon, at the end of August.
Note that Odin’s Eye was hampered by the … European Commission, the latter having, for a time, refused to sign the non-timeport certificates linked to the studies carried out within the framework of this project.
“This situation places French manufacturers in a delicate posture since they must make transfers without fully respecting the conditions imposed by the administration and that we have no guarantees on the final destinations of military and industrial equipment that we help to develop,” recently noted Senator Aymeric Durox, in a written question addressed to the Ministry of Armies.
But as the Ministry of the Armed Forces said in its response, a compromise was found “on a case -by -case basis”.
“This compromise guarantees control of the dissemination by the commission of the classified information which it could receive under the projects which it subsidies. A reflection is also continued with the Commission in order to better take this problem into account in the next calls for projects, while respecting sovereign prerogatives of the State, “he said.
Photo : OHB