Building a Secure Resilient Satellite Infrastructure for Europe

SES details the Road to IRIS², the European Union's Secure Connectivity Programme

Working towards IRIS²

The IRIS² Satellite Constellation is a project led by the European Union that aims to build a new secure, resilient and sovereign satellite constellation in Europe. This constellation will offer communication capabilities and high-speed internet for governmental and business purposes, but also for coping with dead connectivity zones.

To make this a reality, a group of European space and telecommunications players have come together to respond to the European Commission’s call for tender related to the future IRIS² satellite constellation. The consortium also encourages emerging start-ups to join the project and work together on creating a state-of-the-art satellite constellation.

Preceding this important consortium step:

• SES participated in the Public Market Consultation and was part of a consortium of European companies that delivered a working paper to the Commission, contributing to defining the scope and options for the successful development of the programme.
• SES shares the European Commission’s vision to build a European satellite infrastructure that will give its citizens and businesses access to a secure, resilient, and future-proof connectivity through mass-market applications as well as governmental applications for surveillance and crisis management, among others.

The best way forward for IRIS²

SES believes that to succeed, IRIS² should have the below characteristics:

1. Made and operated in Europe: Programme should be designed, built, and launched by the European space industry, and operated by satellite players established in the European Union.
2. Multi-orbit: The European Commission should exploit the merits of a multi-orbit architecture (GEO, MEO, LEO) given satellites in different orbits have different features and capabilities.
3. Leverage existing technology: IRIS² should leverage existing deployed satellite systems and services, enabling a scalable infrastructure that is immediately operational.
4. Public-private partnership: Magnitude of the programme calls for investment from the private sector that could result in a Public-Private Partnership scheme. There should be no reliance on traditional geo-return arrangement whereby member states receive the majority of their contributions back in the form of industrial contracts. Instead, European satellite operators shall be allowed to execute the programme in a competitive way, creating an environment where innovative commercial services can flourish.
5. Fostering the European Space Ecosystem: The project needs to build an innovative and competitive European space sector creating in particular a strong environment for disruptive start-ups and SMEs to flourish. It should allow them to benefit from scale and to have supply chains that gain in efficiency and effectiveness.
6. Strong industry partnerships: Strong partnerships among industry players is a must to defy the singularity of the European aerospace sector where competitors are also partners, customers and suppliers at the same time.

 To learn more, read our letter in Politico.