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Home > Specific files > The CSG under military protection > The CSG under military protection

The CSG under military protection


The CSG is watched over very closely, by the fire brigade and the Protection and Safety Department on the inside, or by the Army on the outside. The Army guarantees the site’s protection both during and outside of launch campaigns. The resources deployed can be considerable, particularly for very important launches

Security: a permanent obsession

Security is a major challenge for the Armed Forces in French Guiana, which are responsible for guarding the CSG. The Space Centre is in fact one of the few civilian sites classified as ‘Priority Defence Facilities’, the highest classification known in France.

Protection of the Space base is ensured on two levels :

  • inside the site where security falls under the Protection and Safety Department and the Paris Fire Brigade;
  • outside the site where security is in the hands of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the gendarmerie.

Although protection is continuous, the resources deployed are not the same during or between launch campaigns.

Guarding the Space Centre

Outside campaigns the Armed Forces participate in surveillance operations. The Army, Navy and Air Force operate jointly. Every day, units patrol the CSG, whether they are from the Foreign Legion’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, surveillance flights by Air Force helicopters or French Navy ships patrolling close to the CSG.

During campaigns the full range of resources is deployed a few days before the launch. This also occurs during the most sensitive phases of the campaign, when the launch vehicle is outside the buildings, particularly during transfer to the launch pad.

The Armed Forces are therefore constantly patrolling the CSG, whether it be :

  • The Army, with the Foreign Legion’s 3rd Infantry Regiment. It has numerous resources, including road vehicles, track vehicles and motorbikes and patrols an area of 800 km². An antiaircraft unit also protects the CSG with missile posts ready to open fire on fast-moving aircraft.
  • The Air Force. It controls the airspace and manages air traffic. It uses Fennec helicopters which are ready to intercept any light aircraft which might try to disobey the ban on flying over the site or which might show a hostile attitude. Puma helicopters are also available to evacuate personnel in an emergency, to lift in military units or to redeploy forces rapidly.
  • The Navy. It patrols the coasts in the vicinity of the CSG with help from the marine gendarmerie. These forces are authorised to re-route vessels which find themselves, voluntarily or not, under the trajectory of the launcher. A navy plane also helps to patrol this coastal region.

Reinforcing the defence arrangements in special circumstances

For certain very special launches the arrangements are reinforced, as was done for the military Hélios II A satellite. Mirage 2000 fighters, an AWACS aircraft and a tanker aircraft can be called up. The decision to reinforce the usual arrangements depends on the satellite to be launched and the threat level related to the international situation. Although there may be no direct threat to the Kourou site and little probability of a military attack, other dangers remain: sabotage, industrial espionage etc. 11 September 2001 also showed that terrorist attacks are a real possibility. It is therefore clearly indispensable to furnish full protection to a site of such strategic importance to national sovereignty as the CSG.

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