Airbus and Thales Alenia Space will manufacture the satellites, while Eutelsat, Hispasat and SES will operate the satellites.

The European Union has launched a tender for the development of the Iris² constellation of secure communications satellites. Belga reports that several European players are now joining forces to make an offer. Airbus and Thales Alenia Space will be responsible for manufacturing the hardware. The list of operators is long: Deutsche Telekom, Eutelsat, Hispasat, Hisdesat, OHB, Orange, SES, Telesapzio and Thales.

The consortium hopes that the offer will convince SMEs to consider a partnership. The goal is clear: “To make the European space sector more innovative and competitive and to enable new business models”.

Iris² is the EU’s third satellite project after Galileo (positioning) and Copernicus (climate). A total of 170 satellites will be put into low-Earth orbit between 2025 and 2027, enabling Europe to establish secure connections.

The press release mentions military use, but the consortium is also targeting any European. She wants to end areas without broadband connections. Today, most of this is already possible via SpaceX’s Starlink. Since the end of 2021, the American company has been offering its satellite internet throughout Belgium and most of Europe.

The project will cost a total of six billion euros, of which 2.4 billion euros will be borne by Europe. In addition, the European Space Agency is providing 750 million euros. The private sector puts the rest on the table. The consortium mentioned above is now preparing an offer for this part.