Crucey-Villages (France) (AFP) — France’s defence ministry is boosting investment in a 1990s radar system, as part of Paris’s push to bolster its early warning defences and curb Europe’s reliance on the United States.

In a Normandy field pocked with rabbit holes, spindly structures form part of a long-range detection system dubbed Nostradamus, Europe’s only “over-the-horizon” radar which can see as far as Moscow.

Developed in 1995, the technology works by bending signals beyond the Earth’s curvature, but has long been sidelined.

Now, Nostradamus — named after the 16th-century French astrologer and reputed seer — sits at the heart of the country’s efforts to reinforce its long-range detection capacity, an area where Paris still depends heavily on Washington.

The push for France to inves

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