WASHINGTON — French and American military satellites have successfully practiced joint maneuvers as part of US Space Command’s multinational space warplan, France’s Space Command announced Sunday.

“This is a great demonstration of our ability to respond and maneuver jointly in orbit,” a translated version of the French** **statement said.

The bilateral rendezvous and proximity operation (RPO), part of US SPACECOM’s Multinational Force-Operation Olympic Defender, further “illustrates France’s ability to conduct dynamic and responsible operations to deter adversaries from acting against its space interests,” according to the statement.

RPOs involve two satellites maneuvering closely around each other, and can be used for various military missions ranging from** **inspection to refueling to repair, or even to attack an enemy satellite.

France partnered with the US on the bilateral operation, a US SPACECOM spokesperson confirmed to Breaking Defense. The command had acknowledged the operation the same day but did not name the country involved.

“This recent bilateral operation demonstrates not only our coalition’s capacity to plan and execute dynamic and responsible space operations, but our steadfast commitment to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in defense of our shared interests in space,” the spokesperson said.

The French announcement explained that while the blue-on-bleu satellite rendezvous was the second conducted with the US military, it was the first jointly planned under Olympic Defender.

France joined the American-led space warplanning and exercise scheme last October. The first joint RPO took place concurrently, but had been planned separately as a bilateral exercise, USSPACECOM said in August. The command noted that a Space Force officer won a French military medal for his involvement.

Six allied nations are currently involved in Olympic Defender, according to US SPACECOM: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The UK is the only other nation to have conducted a joint RPO with the US. That exercise took place Sept. 4-12, US SPACECOM said that month.

While the neither the US nor its allies have made public the satellites involved in any of the joint RPOs, the private space tracking firm COMSPOC said Sept. 19 that the maneuvers with the UK involved a US Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) neighborhood watch bird. The GSSAP satellite, USA 271, began moving on Sept. 5 and on Sept. 12 stopped just 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) from the UK’s SKYNET 5A military communications bird, the firm explained.

COMSPOC also watched the Franco-American pas-de-deux, which a company spokesperson told Breaking Defense involved another GSSAP, USA 324, and France’s SYRACUSE 3A. The satellites performed three sets of maneuvers: Nov. 11-14; Nov. 22-23; and Nov. 28-29, according to COMSPOC’s observations.

“In all these movements, SYRACUSE 3A seems to lead and USA 324 seems to follow as the maneuvers performed by USA 324 is lagged by a day,” the spokesperson said, with the closest approach being about 25.1 kilometers (15.6 miles).

During the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyber Conference in September, a senior Space Force official said that USSPACECOM and the US Space Force component that provides troops to the command, known as Space Forces-Space**,** were in early discussions with other Olympic Defender partners about similar operations.

“We won’t comment on or speak to any plans for potential future operations; however, Multinational Force – Operation OLYMPIC DEFENDER continues to evolve its partnership into an integrated, operational team that’s ready to collectively respond to threats in the domain, if needed,” the USSPACECOM spokesperson said. “Refining our common tactics by planning, training, and executing combined operations – as we do alongside our allies in all domains – is a vital part of maturing the [multinational force].”