The future of space travel and it's consequences for safety and military operations

armasuisse is the Competence Center for Procurement, Technology and Real Estate within the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS). As the center of technology, the "Science and Technology" (S + T) department tests and assesses the operational, functional and efficacious potential as well as the safety requirements of current and future systems of the Swiss Army. With regard to the complexity of this task, research management is of utmost importance and "Technology Early Detection" is a cornerstone of armasuisse’s successful research management program.

The aim of this research program is to identify disruptive developments and their consequences for the Swiss army. In this context, armasuisse and ScMI AG have jointly developed scenarios for the future of space exploration - and investigated their impact on security and military options. The results of the project were presented at the DEFTECH workshop "Why space technology and private industry might disrupt security & military operations?" and discussed with experts from military and politics as well as business and science. Subsequently, the scenario-assessment was revised. Both, scenario-assessment as well as the initial scenarios, have been published in a working paper that is available for download.