Europe picks consortium for sovereign satellite constellation IRIS²

PARIS — The European Commission picked a consortium led by SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat to deploy the IRIS² satellite constellation, as the European Union seeks its own satellite broadband system to ensure the bloc isn’t reliant on foreign entities such as Elon Musk’s Starlink.

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’s Telespazio and Thales SIX.

Militaries have jumped on the possibilities offered by SpaceX’s 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 relies on Starlink for command and control, while Ukraine uses the service to guide drones and for battlefield communications.

“IRIS² is an essential pillar of our resilience,” European Parliament member Christophe Grudler, who sits on the legislature’s industry committee, said in a post on X on Thursday. “We need it fast.”

The EU is counting on IRIS² as a sovereign alternative to the likes of Starlink, Amazon’s 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’t rely on a third party, according to Commission.

Under the contract, the SpaceRISE consortium will provide governmental services by 2030, while also enabling commercial services. IRIS² will be used for government functions including border and maritime surveillance, secure communications for embassies and for military missions, according to the Commission.

“This milestone represents a crucial step towards establishing a secure, resilient, and autonomous communications infrastructure for Europe,” the consortium said in a joint statement, adding that full operational status is targeted for the early 2030s.

The new timetable pushes IRIS² 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.

IRIS² 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.

The cost of the constellation is estimated at €10.6 billion, or $11.6 billion, French financial newspaper Les Echos reported , without saying where it got the information. The concession contract will be funded by public money as well as private investment by the consortium.

The EU announced €2.4 billion in funding for IRIS² last year, including €1.65 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.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck in March called for a delay of IRIS² to rethink the program, writing to the Commission to complain about the proposed €12 billion budget, and the division of the work between France and Germany, Handelsblatt reported in April.

The EU already operates the Galileo navigation satellite system, as well as the Copernicus Earth-observation program.

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——欧盟委员会选择由 SES、Eutelsat 和 Hispasat 领导的财团部署 IRIS² 卫星星座，欧盟正在寻求建立自己的卫星宽带系统，以确保欧盟不会依赖像埃隆·马斯克的 Starlink 这样的外国实体。

欧盟委员会周四在一份声明中表示，各方将于12月前签署一份为期12年的特许经营合同。该合同涉及290多颗卫星，将在多个轨道上运行，核心分包商包括泰雷兹阿莱尼亚宇航公司、空中客车航天与防务公司、意大利的泰雷兹航天公司和泰雷兹SIX公司。

各国军方纷纷利用SpaceX公司的星链（Starlink）项目，这是首个利用近地轨道提供宽带互联网服务的大型卫星星座，但也引发了人们对依赖私营公司的担忧，因为这可能会使一项关键服务面临中断的风险。美国空军依靠星链进行指挥控制，而乌克兰则利用该服务引导无人机和进行战场通信。

“IRIS² 是我们韧性的重要支柱，”欧洲议会工业委员会成员克里斯托夫·格鲁德勒周四在 X 网站上发帖称，“我们需要尽快使用它。”

欧盟将IRIS²视为Starlink、亚马逊Kuiper或英国OneWeb等服务的自主替代方案。欧盟委员会指出，全球卫星连接正迅速成为保障安全、维护稳定和增强韧性的战略资产，欧盟亟需确保不受限制、不依赖第三方的可靠接入。

根据合同，SpaceRISE联盟将在2030年前提供政府服务，同时也将支持商业服务。欧盟委员会表示，IRIS²将用于政府职能，包括边境和海上监视、使馆安全通信以及军事任务。

该联盟在一份联合声明中表示：“这一里程碑标志着向为欧洲建立安全、有韧性和自主的通信基础设施迈出了关键一步”，并补充说，全面投入运营的目标是在 2030 年代初。

与欧盟去年 3 月提出的时间表相比，新的时间表将 IRIS² 的部署推迟了数年。欧盟当时设想最早于 2024 年底首次部署，并于 2027 年全面投入使用。

IRIS²系统将包括低地球轨道（LEO）卫星和中地球轨道卫星。低地球轨道卫星能够实现低延迟连接，而中地球轨道卫星则可以覆盖全球更广阔的区域。欧盟寄希望于该系统能够为目前欧洲缺乏宽带服务的地区以及北极地区提供宽带覆盖。

据法国财经报纸《回声报》报道，该星座的造价估计为106亿欧元，约合116亿美元，但该报并未透露消息来源。特许经营合同的资金将来自公共资金以及财团的私人投资。

欧盟去年宣布为 IRIS² 项目提供 24 亿欧元资金，其中包括到 2027 年底的 16.5 亿欧元。欧盟委员会表示，2027 年后可能会追加欧洲资金，但这取决于欧洲议会和成员国是否通过后续计划等因素。

据《商报》4 月份报道，德国经济部长罗伯特·哈贝克在 3 月份呼吁推迟 IRIS² 项目，以便重新考虑该项目。他致信欧盟委员会，抱怨拟议的 120 亿欧元预算以及法国和德国之间的工作分工。

欧盟已经运营着伽利略导航卫星系统和哥白尼地球观测计划。

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。