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PARIS, France (Reuters) -- In sectors ranging from aviation to mobile communications, Europe has come from nowhere to challenge the United States where it once dominated.
Now, experts are wondering if Europe may again be poised to catch the Americans napping -- this time in space.
At the end of May, the European Space Agency announced it had secured backing from its member states to launch Galileo, an independent European satellite constellation that will rival the U.S. military's GPS global positioning system.
For a quarter of a century GPS satellites have hovered 12,430 miles above the earth's surface, sending signals that are now essential for guiding mountain climbers, pilots and army generals alike.
In the war in Iraq, an estimated 60 percent of the bombs used by the United States were GPS-steered weapons.
And GPS-based timing information facilitates international financial transactions and plays a key role in the functioning of the Internet.
But GPS now looks vulnerable.
Because the United States has focused on its military applications, Europe is seizing an opportunity to build a new system tailored to civilians, which now outnumber military users 100 to 1.
In contrast to GPS, which is run by the Pentagon, Galileo will be run by civilians. It promises greater continuity and broader coverage than GPS, potentially giving it a leg up in key applications such as traffic management.
"The United States could end up ceding leadership in civil navigation to Europe," said Jeffrey Bialos, former head of the U.S. delegation for negotiations on GPS and Galileo and an official at the Pentagon under the Clinton administration.
U.S. officials have accused Europe of creating an unnecessary duplicate system and worry about plans to position Galileo signals on the same frequency used by GPS for military purposes.
Europe's answer has been that Galileo will be a purely civil system. But comments from top European officials demonstrate that strategic considerations have been paramount in going ahead with the project.
In December 2001, French President Jacques Chirac said European countries would become "vassals" of the United States if they did not build their own navigation system.
More recently, wars in Kosovo and Iraq reinforced the notion in European capitals that continued dependence on GPS could compromise European sovereignty.
Concerns that the United States could deliberately jam GPS signals that Europe has come to depend on also grew during the Iraq conflict, in part because of the transatlantic tensions sparked by the war.
"The war in Iraq underscored how weak Europe is in using space applications for defense and security purposes," said European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin, speaking in Paris at the end of June.
David Braunschvig, a managing director at Lazard in New York and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes Galileo would be made available to a future unified European defense force if it takes shape.
For example, future European peacekeepers and soldiers in areas like the Balkans could use Galileo to define their positions or guide their weapons.
"Galileo is positioned as civilian but could easily evolve to become strategic," said Braunschvig, who co-authored a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine on Galileo and GPS.
Galileo is only one element of a broader European drive to bolster its role in space and lessen its dependence on the United States.
Unhappy with the quality of satellite imagery supplied by the United States during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, Germany has embarked on a program to build radar observation satellites that will complement those already operated by the French.
In late May, European governments pledged more than $1.1 billion to help the Ariane-5 satellite launcher program better compete with U.S. rivals like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Europe's drive must be put in perspective. It currently spends about $6.8 billion annually on space versus U.S. expenditures of $36.8 billion a year.
The United States accounts for some 95 percent of the money spent around the world on military-related space projects.
But Europe's space initiatives -- and a concurrent space drive in China -- come at a time when control of space is at the center of a debate on future U.S. military policy.
A 2001 Space Commission, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, warned that the United States was vulnerable to a "space Pearl Harbor" and urged measures to ensure Washington's continued dominance in space.
Now, experts are wondering if Europe may again be poised to catch the Americans napping -- this time in space.
At the end of May, the European Space Agency announced it had secured backing from its member states to launch Galileo, an independent European satellite constellation that will rival the U.S. military's GPS global positioning system.
For a quarter of a century GPS satellites have hovered 12,430 miles above the earth's surface, sending signals that are now essential for guiding mountain climbers, pilots and army generals alike.
In the war in Iraq, an estimated 60 percent of the bombs used by the United States were GPS-steered weapons.
And GPS-based timing information facilitates international financial transactions and plays a key role in the functioning of the Internet.
But GPS now looks vulnerable.
Because the United States has focused on its military applications, Europe is seizing an opportunity to build a new system tailored to civilians, which now outnumber military users 100 to 1.
In contrast to GPS, which is run by the Pentagon, Galileo will be run by civilians. It promises greater continuity and broader coverage than GPS, potentially giving it a leg up in key applications such as traffic management.
"The United States could end up ceding leadership in civil navigation to Europe," said Jeffrey Bialos, former head of the U.S. delegation for negotiations on GPS and Galileo and an official at the Pentagon under the Clinton administration.
U.S. officials have accused Europe of creating an unnecessary duplicate system and worry about plans to position Galileo signals on the same frequency used by GPS for military purposes.
Europe's answer has been that Galileo will be a purely civil system. But comments from top European officials demonstrate that strategic considerations have been paramount in going ahead with the project.
In December 2001, French President Jacques Chirac said European countries would become "vassals" of the United States if they did not build their own navigation system.
More recently, wars in Kosovo and Iraq reinforced the notion in European capitals that continued dependence on GPS could compromise European sovereignty.
Concerns that the United States could deliberately jam GPS signals that Europe has come to depend on also grew during the Iraq conflict, in part because of the transatlantic tensions sparked by the war.
"The war in Iraq underscored how weak Europe is in using space applications for defense and security purposes," said European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin, speaking in Paris at the end of June.
David Braunschvig, a managing director at Lazard in New York and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes Galileo would be made available to a future unified European defense force if it takes shape.
For example, future European peacekeepers and soldiers in areas like the Balkans could use Galileo to define their positions or guide their weapons.
"Galileo is positioned as civilian but could easily evolve to become strategic," said Braunschvig, who co-authored a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine on Galileo and GPS.
Galileo is only one element of a broader European drive to bolster its role in space and lessen its dependence on the United States.
Unhappy with the quality of satellite imagery supplied by the United States during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, Germany has embarked on a program to build radar observation satellites that will complement those already operated by the French.
In late May, European governments pledged more than $1.1 billion to help the Ariane-5 satellite launcher program better compete with U.S. rivals like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Europe's drive must be put in perspective. It currently spends about $6.8 billion annually on space versus U.S. expenditures of $36.8 billion a year.
The United States accounts for some 95 percent of the money spent around the world on military-related space projects.
But Europe's space initiatives -- and a concurrent space drive in China -- come at a time when control of space is at the center of a debate on future U.S. military policy.
A 2001 Space Commission, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, warned that the United States was vulnerable to a "space Pearl Harbor" and urged measures to ensure Washington's continued dominance in space.
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