The Role of the French Foreign Legion in Latin America in the Defence of the European Space Program

Abstract

Since its formation in 1831, the French Foreign Legion has traditionally defended French interests in the overseas regions. During its nearly two centuries of existence, it was primarily involved in the conquest and protection of colonial territories in Africa but was also deployed many times on the Asian and American continents. In the latter region, the Foreign Legion has been active since 1973, mainly in the European space centre in French Guyana, protected by the soldiers of the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment. The Guyana Space Centre, currently the largest spaceport of the European Union, was established in 1964 in French Guyana near the city of Kourou, making it ideal for launching space rockets due to its proximity to the Equator. The space centre, originally run by the French state, has been shared with other European Space Agency countries since 1975, launching European satellites from an area more than 7,000 kilometers from Europe. Among other projects, they enable the operation of the Union’s satellite navigation system, Galileo. For all these reasons, the protection of the space centre is a priority task, which the Foreign Legion has been effectively providing for almost 50 years with tools and methods that have been constantly renewed. The aim of this paper is to present this activity and its impact on the region and, more broadly, on the scientific and geopolitical situation in Europe.