It is the story of a rebirth: that of a French cucumber almost falls into oblivion and that could have been there, if the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, would not have put it on stage in the Bourget Show.
In his speech presented by the strategy of the armies for very high altitude (area of approximately 20 and 100 kilometers above sea level), Sébastien Lecornu announced the allocation of funds for three projects, “rapid victories”, to quickly strengthen air protection.
One of these projects is the Nostradamus program: a network of 288 antennas seven meters high, divided into stars into 12 hectares, three buried technical galleries of 130 meters each, at Crucey in the heart of Normandy, in the vestiges of an old Military Base of NATO.
Together with the Alis antennas, which serve in particular as emitters to distribute RFI in Africa, Nostradamus allows you to see 360 °, and monitor a very long distance what is happening in the air, almost to the edges of Europe … therefore, Russia.
Geostrategic context
Developed at the end of the Cold War, Nostradamus had to allow France to detect any threat of the former Soviet Union. The program benefited at that time from the funds of the General Directorate of Armament, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the USSR, it fell into disuse, the interests of France focused on Africa, an area outside the reach of these radars.
But the Onera had a hollow nose and does not take Nostradamus, continues to maintain the network and antennas and even the digitalization of the systems.
It should be said that the geopolitical context demonstrates that reason: war in Ukraine, ballistic threats, renewed tensions with Russia, militarization of space … These are risks that require long and long distance surveillance capabilities.
What the minister points in his speech are hypervélocias weapons such as surveillance balloons (or espionage), such as those deployed by China that had flown over the United States in 2023.
Nostradamus also allows you to see the objects “from above,” says René Mathurin and, therefore, potentially detect stealthy airplanes. It is also a “resistant” system: given its size, it would be difficult to destroy the entire system at the same time.
A system ready to use
With Nostradamus, Onera and by extension France, it has a very rare capacity. This type of installation has been developed by a limited number of countries: the United States, Australia and Russia.
An almost ready to use system, if the Ministry of the Army decides to completely relaunch the program.
At the moment, the over 2 million euros is intended to establish whether or not the system has an operational interest for armies. In the case of a positive response, the Onera says she is ready to relaunch the system with relative speed. Obviously, it would be necessary to “build” the protection of the site and the systems (cybeling, encryption …), Develop data analysis systems … but the system that has been maintained by a dozen people, the work would be much less expensive and important than if necessary to develop a system from the beginning.
Nostradamus could follow the same route as the Graves Space Monitoring Program (Great Network adapted to the Space Clock): Developed by the Onera in the early 2000s for monitoring and classification of space objects in low orbit, the demonstrator was so essential that it was transferred to the Air Force and the space in 2005 for operational use. A system that has been demonstrated and even in service 20 years later (its successor must be ordered this year).
The interest of the military for Nostradamus is established, either by the Air and Space Army but also by the defense staff. Now the contract remains to be completed to launch the evaluation phase.
Source: BFM TV
