The European Commission picked a consortium led by SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat to deploy the IRIS\u00b2 satellite constellation, as the European Union seeks its own satellite broadband system to ensure the bloc isn\u2019t reliant on foreign entities such as Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink.<\/p>\n
The parties will sign a 12-year concession contract by December, the Commission said in a statement on Thursday. Core subcontractors for the contract, which envisages more than 290 satellites in multiple orbits, include Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Space and Defence, Italy\u2019s Telespazio and Thales SIX.<\/p>\n
Militaries have jumped on the possibilities offered by SpaceX\u2019s Starlink, the first large satellite constellation to use low Earth orbit to deliver broadband Internet, raising concerns of dependency on a private company that could potentially deactivate a critical service. The U.S. Air Force\u00a0relies on Starlink<\/u>\u00a0for command and control, while Ukraine uses the service to guide drones and for battlefield communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cIRIS\u00b2 is an essential pillar of our resilience,\u201d European Parliament member Christophe Grudler, who sits on the legislature\u2019s industry committee, said in a\u00a0post on X<\/u><\/a>\u00a0on Thursday. \u201cWe need it fast.\u201d<\/p>\n The EU is counting on IRIS\u00b2 as a sovereign alternative to the likes of Starlink, Amazon\u2019s Kuiper or U.K.-based OneWeb. Global satellite connectivity is fast becoming a strategic asset for security, safety and resilience, and the EU needs to urgently ensure guaranteed and unrestricted access that doesn\u2019t rely on a third party, according to Commission.<\/p>\n Under the contract, the\u00a0SpaceRISE consortium<\/u><\/a>\u00a0will provide governmental services by 2030, while also enabling commercial services. IRIS\u00b2 will be used for government functions including border and maritime surveillance, secure communications for embassies and for military missions, according to the Commission.<\/p>\n \u201cThis milestone represents a crucial step towards establishing a secure, resilient, and autonomous communications infrastructure for Europe,\u201d the consortium said in a joint statement, adding that full operational status is targeted for the early 2030s.<\/p>\n The new timetable pushes IRIS\u00b2 back by several years compared to the timeline presented by the EU in March last year, which envisaged first deployment as early as the end of 2024 and full service in 2027.<\/p>\n IRIS\u00b2 will include satellites in low Earth orbit, or LEO, which allow for low latency connections, as wall as in medium Earth orbit, which can cover a larger part of the globe. The EU is counting on the system to provide broadband coverage in areas in Europe that currently lack service, as well as in the Arctic region.<\/p>\n The cost of the constellation is estimated at \u20ac10.6 billion, or $11.6 billion, French financial newspaper\u00a0Les Echos reported<\/u><\/a>, without saying where it got the information. The concession contract will be funded by public money as well as private investment by the consortium.<\/p>\n The EU announced \u20ac2.4 billion in\u00a0funding for\u00a0<\/u><\/a>IRIS\u00b2<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/u>last year, including \u20ac1.65 billion through to the end of 2027. Additional European funding may be awarded after 2027, subject among other things to the European Parliament and member states adopting a successor program, the Commission said.<\/p>\n