Europe accelerates sovereign satellite capabilities push after US data restrictions

PARIS — Demand for sovereign satellite capabilities is growing in Europe as governments seek greater control over access to relevant infrastructure.

The push follows restrictions by the United States on satellite access in Ukraine and the Middle East over the past two years, which underscored the risk of dependence, executives and policy makers said at an industry conference here last week.

"Sovereignty" was a recurring theme at the World Space Business Week, held from Sept. 14 to 17 in Paris, and the two-day Space Defense & Security Summit side event.

U.S. firms touted their ability to build satellites in Europe or operate free from International Traffic in Arms Regulations, while European companies highlighted their ability to provide local clients with complete satellite systems.

"The drive to sovereignty, we all have customers that want to go there," said Noam Segal, the chief executive officer of Israeli firm ImageSat International (ISI). "Any of the defense customers we are dealing with can find themselves in a geopolitical situation in which one of the suppliers will not be able to deliver. I think this is the driver."

Lessons from Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has highlighted both the importance of satellite data on the modern battlefield and the reliance of Western militaries on U.S. suppliers for critical space capabilities. Restrictions on Starlink access in Ukraine, a halt in U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine in March 2025, and imagery restrictions over the Middle East in 2026 are pushing European countries to seek sovereign alternatives.

The lesson from Ukraine has been to show how critical space has become for defense, as well as "the importance of indeed not being reliant on solutions you don't control," said Guillaume de la Brosse, head of the defense policy and innovation unit at the European Commission.

He said there is a "clear imperative" to accelerate development of sovereign space-based capabilities in Europe, meaning a minimum backbone of public assets owned by either the EU or member states, and an EU-based industry able to provide sovereign services "that we can control all the time."

"Sovereignty very much matters, this is what we've learned from Ukraine," De la Brosse said. "That does not preclude the fact that we need cooperation, whatever happens, but that as a pre-requirement has sovereignty. It's good to cut dependencies where we need to cut dependencies, and that's very much the agenda of the upcoming years."

Recent history showed space sovereignty is the only ultimate guarantee of having the freedom to "assess and act when conflict breaks out," said Jean-Baptiste Paing, a deputy director at France's Directorate General for Armament whose responsibilities include intelligence and space operations. He cited the difficulty obtaining commercial satellite communications over Afghanistan and, more recently, access to commercial imaging during the various crises in the Middle East.

New Space Enables Sovereignty

The emergence of New Space — the shift from a government-dominated to a private space industry that has cut the cost of launchers and satellites — is allowing European governments to establish space sovereignty even with relatively limited budgets, executives said.

The number of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites for defense purposes, "a key priority for most nations," is expected to increase more than fourfold through to 2035, according to industry consultancy Novaspace, which organized the conferences.

New Space provides "an incredible opportunity" for countries that didn't have a space industry to develop their own sovereign capabilities, said Vincent Dedieu, the CEO of Sodern, a unit of France's ArianeGroup. He said Sodern has been working with countries such as Poland, Bulgaria and Finland, which are taking advantage of New Space to catch up in both defense and commercial space.

The fact that customers are now able to own space assets at a "completely different cost point" from the past means the push for sovereign capabilities "is a strong trend that's going to be there for the future," according to Segal at ISI.

There is a "seismic shift" in how industry and governments deal with space capabilities, said Julia Gottfriedsen, chief technology officer at German thermal-imaging startup Constellr. She cited the example of Germany buying data from ICEYE and Rheinmetall for its brigade in Lithuania, through a service-level agreement that shifted the risk for data supply to the companies.

"So this is pretty modern and new, while in parallel, of course, the governments are also looking into procuring their own infrastructure," Gottfriedsen said.

Industry Responses

Executives at U.S.-based geospatial intelligence firms such as Planet Labs, BlackSky and Vantor all noted that their satellites can be delivered ITAR-free, with several highlighting their European presence or ability to manufacture their satellites outside the United States.

HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini said partnerships with Italy's Leonardo and Czechia's ERA and having a Luxembourg subsidiary means he's confident that "even as a U.S. company," the firm can meet the requirement of European militaries "regardless of how those customers want the sovereignty delivered to them."

Planet Labs cut the ribbon on a new facility in Berlin this week, and co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Robbie Schingler said the company's first German-built Pelican satellite is set to come off the production line by the end of the year and sent into orbit on a German-built Isar Aerospace rocket launched from Norway "sometime early next year."

Meanwhile, Finland's ICEYE is taking sovereignty "to a whole different level" to fulfill a German order for a 40-satellite constellation, setting up a manufacturing site in western Germany controlled by a German-owned entity and keeping the entire supply chain within the country, according to CEO Rafal Modrzewski. That does require a sufficiently large order to justify the investment, he said.

For European customers that own and operate a smaller number of ICEYE satellites — such as Sweden, Finland, Poland and the Netherlands — the company is now offering a software layer that allows countries to "federate their assets at the tactical level" and borrow each other's capabilities to cover areas of interest, Modrzewski said.

One element of sovereignty is assurance and control, another is choice, said Schingler at Planet Labs. The federation approach allows countries to network their systems for an ad hoc mission, "and that choice also gives a lot of sovereignty," he said.

European Coordination Challenges

The European Commission is pushing for international cooperation to remain the way of doing things in space, including through discussions with NATO about space security, even if "that cooperation is very much challenged, and there is a need for Europeans to do much more, investing in their freedom of action," De la Brosse said.

He said that as EU members invest heavily in space, one challenge is to avoid "renationalization of space policies," and the commission is using the EU budget to provide an incentive to member states to coordinate investments and pool space resources rather than develop constellations without taking other member states into account.

Germany's plan to invest a "massive" €35 billion in sovereign military space capabilities by 2030 may raise concern among some EU members that the country will "fly solo," but the investment is a legitimate sovereign choice, said Paing at the DGA.

"I cannot speak for sovereignty myself without recognizing the same capacity in other countries, and I think it should be seen more as a model to follow for others rather than something to be afraid of," Paing said. "That being said, I believe that this investment should nevertheless be put at the service of building a stronger Europe."

Launch Access

Sovereignty also includes the ability to get satellites into orbit, executives said, with several remarking on the scarcity of launch slots. Nicolas Lefort, the head of new markets at MBDA, said France's Toutatis project to bring a maneuverable satellite into low-Earth orbit is still waiting for a launcher.

François Lombard, the head of connected intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space, said he's optimistic about new European players offering launchers capable of carrying one-ton payloads into LEO, citing a recent successful launch by Germany's Isar Aerospace, as well as ArianeGroup's MaiaSpace coming to the market "pretty soon."

"In that case, European alternatives, which is good," Lombard said. "There are a few satellites we cannot launch from other continents, so it's important that we have also the sovereign access to space for this class of satellites in a competitive manner."

About the Author

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.