Eying a Starlink alternative, France to boost Eutelsat stake

PARIS — France will participate in a capital increase by satellite operator Eutelsat to the tune of €717 million (US$826 million) to help the company finance the expansion of its constellation of low-orbit communication satellites and create a sovereign European alternative to Starlink.

The announcement by the French finance ministry on Thursday comes after the country’s Directorate General for Armament announced a 10-year framework contract with Eutelsat worth as much as €1 billion to provide military-grade satellite communications.

European militaries have been eyeing the role of Starlink in Ukraine, where the constellation of satellites operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX vital for command and control, drone operations and maintaining battlefield communications. The European Union plans to build its own satellite broadband system called IRIS², but lacks anything with the coverage of Starlink for now.

“France is increasing its stake in the Eutelsat Group to support it in a decisive phase of its development,” French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said in a social media post. “This increased investment reflects a clear desire to make satellite connectivity a strategic lever for digital and industrial sovereignty for our country and for Europe.”

Eutelsat is planning a €1.35 billion capital increase, and France’s planned participation will increase the government stake to around 30%, from less than 20% now. The U.K. government is also a shareholder with a stake of nearly 11%.

The DGA deal with Eutelsat for space communications aims to complement the French Syracuse military satellites in geostationary orbit with a constellation of low-orbit satellites. The program, called Nexus, aims to boost the safety and functionality of Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation as satellites are renewed, in order to increase the range of possible military uses, the agency said.

“France is thus resolutely committed to a process of hybridizing the means of telecommunications by satellite for its forces, combining military and civilian capabilities,” the DGA said.

As part of the contract, Eutelsat will provide the armed forces with priority space resources, particularly those of the OneWeb constellation, as well as increase the security of the satellites in the constellation, according to the DGA.

Eutelsat is part of the consortium together with SES and Hispasat that was picked by the European Commission in November to deploy the IRIS² satellite constellation.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——法国将参与卫星运营商欧洲通信卫星公司（Eutelsat）的增资计划，投资额达 7.17 亿欧元（8.26 亿美元），以帮助该公司为其低轨道通信卫星星座的扩张提供资金，并打造一个可替代星链（Starlink）的欧洲自主方案。

法国财政部周四发布的公告是在该国军备总局宣布与欧洲通信卫星公司签订一份价值高达 10 亿欧元的 10 年框架合同，以提供军用级卫星通信之后发布的。

欧洲各国军方一直在关注星链在乌克兰的作用。由埃隆·马斯克旗下SpaceX公司运营的星链卫星星座对乌克兰的指挥控制、无人机作战以及战场通信至关重要。欧盟计划建设自己的卫星宽带系统IRIS²，但目前尚无任何系统能够达到星链的覆盖范围。

法国财政部长埃里克·隆巴尔在社交媒体上发文称：“法国正在增持欧洲通信卫星集团的股份，以支持其处于关键发展阶段。此次增持体现了法国的明确愿望，即让卫星连接成为法国乃至欧洲实现数字化和工业自主的战略杠杆。”

欧洲通信卫星公司（Eutelsat）计划增资13.5亿欧元，法国政府的参股将使法国政府的持股比例从目前的不到20%增至约30%。英国政府也是股东之一，持股比例接近11%。

德国国防装备总局（DGA）与欧洲通信卫星公司（Eutelsat）达成的空间通信协议旨在利用低轨道卫星星座，对法国位于地球静止轨道的锡拉丘兹（Syracuse）军用卫星进行补充。该机构表示，这项名为“Nexus”的计划旨在随着卫星的更新换代，提升欧洲通信卫星公司OneWeb星座的安全性和功能性，从而扩大其军事用途范围。

“因此，法国坚定致力于将其军队的卫星通信手段混合化，将军事和民用能力结合起来，”法国国防装备总局表示。

根据DGA的说法，作为合同的一部分，Eutelsat将向武装部队提供优先空间资源，特别是OneWeb星座的资源，并提高该星座卫星的安全性。

欧洲通信卫星公司 (Eutelsat) 与 SES 和 Hispasat 组成联盟，该联盟于 11 月被欧盟委员会选中，负责部署 IRIS² 卫星星座。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。