Content area
Full Text
Improved intelligence gathering is high on German defence minister Rudolf Scharping's list of priorities in the planned reform of the armed forces. At the Franco-German summit in Mainz on June 9th he won political support for a German national recce satellite system - but no financial commitment - from the French.
Franco-German spy satellite cooperation is a long saga with many ups and downs, going back to the late 1970s. Quarrels about workshares and financing of the French Helios photo satellite series and German attempts to get leadership in a radar-satellite project (Horns) continued for some years. In 1997 the idea of cooperation on a radar...