The recent visit of General Said Chengriha, Chief of Staff of the Algerian Army, to France was not only aimed at arranging the visit of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to Paris but also an attempt to gain points from the current tense relations between Morocco and France, and to bridge the gap with Morocco in the field of intelligence. This is being done by working to persuade the French government to provide Algeria with the surveillance satellite technology that Rabat has owned since 2017.
Chengriha strongly urged French military officials to sign defense agreements that would allow Algeria to obtain technology "equivalent" to that of Morocco through Mohammed VI satellites "A" and "B," according to what was confirmed by information published by the French "Morocco Intelligence" website. This was the proposal made to Sébastien Lecornu, the French Minister of Armies, by the chief of staff of the Algerian army.
Chengriha insisted on "the need to establish a partnership" that would allow Algeria to obtain French technology in order to "thwart" the effectiveness of Moroccan satellites that are believed to be spying on Algeria.
According to the report, the Algerian general wants to acquire new satellites that can monitor the deployment of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces in the border areas at any price. He also wants to be able to keep an eye on and gather information about the military infrastructure that Israel can build on Moroccan land in case there is a war with Morocco.
The Algerian army wants to obtain the technology of the French Pléiades imaging system, which is used in advanced satellites and provides images that can be used to locate military installations of foreign countries, a technology that France sold to Morocco in 2017 coinciding with the launch of the Mohammed VI satellite "A," which was equipped with very high-precision monitoring capabilities as it provides snapshots in less than 24 hours with an accuracy of up to 70 centimeters from any point on the globe.
Algeria also wants to catch up with the technology that Morocco bought for 500 million euros because it is afraid of Morocco's "espionage" capabilities which Rabat improved in 2018 by launching the Mohammed VI "B" satellite, which is an advanced monitoring system that gets 500 images per day.
Hence, according to the French report, Algerian officials want to entice France to manufacture at least two satellites for its benefit, provided that their performance is better than their Moroccan counterparts, and they are ready to set a budget of one billion euros for this project, in pursuit of a balance with Moroccan capabilities in the field of espionage through space; however, it has not yet received any final answer, as the issue is still under study in Paris.
