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Sure, it’s not easy, but GALILEO shows projects like this are possible and can be successful in the E.U.

Like GLONASS, GALILEO was planned as a sovereign GNSS, but the US used their diplomatic power to convince the European Commission to make it "optimized for interoperability"[1].

It's likely that we will see an European Starlink but only an "interoperable" one. A cost sharing and robustness measure. Not a sovereign European system.

[1] https://www.gps.gov/news/joint-statement-galileo-and-gps-sig...

It's pretty clear that electing the pumpkin twice has dispelled any notions about the US's reliability as a long-term partner. Sure, the next US president will extend a hand in solidarity, but the Europeans can't rely on that happening every 4 years any longer. I think most have figured that out.

The GALILEO decision was in 2006 while George W. Bush was president. Obama would have done the same, it's just a decision that makes sense from a US standpoint.

Since then some things have changed.

Interoperable is good. All that matters is EU keeps the ability to take back control and route around US satellites.

Interoperability here means build a GPS variant (and not your own system) but without the encrypted PRS and military M-code, so we still can jam it without disrupting our own military signal.

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