This week, the Ukrainian military reported restrictions on the Starlink satellite service. The connection is interrupted as soon as the receivers move more than 160 kilometers per hour, as is the case with drones.
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Service was initially partially restored, but a cap remained in place. It is unclear who ordered this restriction.
SpaceX boss Elon Musk rejected blame that the company ordered the shutdown. Starshield is under the direct control of the US government, he wrote on X.
It is important to distinguish the two systems: Starlink and Starshield are both developed by SpaceX but intended for different customers. Starlink is the service for private and professional users, Starshield is designed for governments and the military.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski reacted sharply to
Poland financed a large part of the Ukrainian terminals. This once again raises the question of the armed forces’ dependence on satellite links. Europe has therefore been working on its own solution for some time.
The European response: IRIS²
The EU has been developing IRIS², its own satellite network, for around six years. The acronym stands for “Satellite Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security.”
In German, this roughly means infrastructure for resilience, connectivity and security via satellites. The system aims to provide secure connections to governments, businesses and citizens and fill mobile coverage gaps in Europe and Africa.
For encryption, it will rely on quantum technology via the European quantum communications infrastructure EuroQCI.
At the beginning of August, the European Commission and the SpaceRISE consortium agreed on the implementation. The network will expand to 348 satellites, 330 in low Earth orbit and 18 in medium Earth orbit.
Another 66 additional satellites are specifically intended to strengthen defense, security and emergency services. According to Commission calculations, this will increase secure capacity for public sector users by 60 percent in the EU and 54 percent globally.
The focus is on states, the military and critical services; in the future, individuals will also be able to use the network. The first satellites should be launched in 2029. The first services should be gradually introduced from 2029 or 2030.
Germany’s role
Germany is represented by the space company Orbitale Hochtechnologie Bremen (OHB), based in Bremen.
On August 31, it signed a contract worth just under a billion euros with satellite operator SES for 18 satellites in medium Earth orbit for IRIS².
A single satellite weighs around 2.6 tonnes at launch. OHB Director General Marco Fuchs sees this program as an important step towards greater European independence.
Germany’s share in the project sparked controversy early on.
In December 2023, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs sent a firm letter to the companies concerned demanding urgent clarification on the participation of German industry and its share in value creation, as reported by the Frankfurter Rundschau daily.
Bundeswehr: its own satellite network?
Independently of IRIS², the Bundeswehr is planning its own satellite network. This is a national project funded by the federal government.
Major General Armin Fleischmann, the Bundeswehr’s space commissioner for cybersecurity and information, told regional public broadcaster MDR that the plan concerns a constellation similar to Starlink, but smaller.
He told business newspaper Handelsblatt that they wanted to have “flying Fritzboxes” in space. The network must initially cover the eastern flank of NATO, under national control. Individual components will come from Western partners, including the United States.
As early as September 2025, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced at the space congress of the Federation of German Industries in Berlin that a total of 35 billion euros would be invested in military space projects by 2030. In July, he visited the OHB in Bremen to inspect satellite programs and ongoing production.
The project is called SATCOMBw 4, short for Bundeswehr satellite communications. According to the Bundeswehr, in its final expansion phase it is expected to include a three-digit number of satellites in low Earth orbit and cost between eight and ten billion euros. A first partial constellation comprising up to 40 satellites should be operational from 2029, and full operations are planned from 2030.
The Bremen-based joint venture “OHB Rheinmetall Space Networks” is bidding for the contract. According to company information, OHB would be responsible for the satellites, Rheinmetall for the ground stations and terminal devices. No decision has yet been made.
Industry reports suggest the contract award could take place towards the end of the year, although insiders also see early 2027 as possible. OHB would then be involved in the two major projects: in IRIS² as a satellite manufacturer and in the Bundeswehr network within the joint venture.
Until now, the Bundeswehr used two of its own satellites in geostationary orbit at around 36,000 kilometers altitude, COMSATBw-1 and COMSATBw-2, launched in 2009 and 2010.
Their successors are built by Airbus and are expected to be put into orbit in 2029. The first of three German SARah radar satellites was launched in 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
A young Belgian company participates in the construction of the European satellite network
IRIS² satellites are built by several companies. The largest share will not be provided by an established group but by a young company:
Aerospacelab, founded in 2018 and based in Charleroi, Belgium, builds 264 satellites in low Earth orbit.
The order volume amounts to 2.4 billion euros, according to the company. The satellites are to be delivered by 2030. They will be produced in a new factory in Charleroi, where up to 500 satellites per year are to be built from 2027.
Airbus is building at least 66 first-layer satellites for military communications, which are expected to be ready in 2029. This means that the entire low-orbit segment, with 330 satellites, has been awarded.
With the 18 OHB satellites in medium orbit, the network will include 348 satellites.
How realistic is 2029?
The question of whether the timetable can be respected remains open. The first satellites should be launched in 2029; according to media reports, the original plan was for them to increase two years earlier.
Experts see rocket launches as a bottleneck. Even the best satellites cannot reach space without rockets, and those that cannot launch them themselves remain dependent on others.
Europe is banking on the Ariane 6 launcher, which has been taking off into space since 2024. Andreas Knopp of the Bundeswehr University in Munich points out in the weekly Das Parlament that the number of launches is limited, while political scientist Antje Nötzold of TU Chemnitz speaks in the MDR of a “launcher problem”.
Since the start of the year, Ariane 6 has launched four times, including three flights carrying into orbit Amazon Leo satellites, the American company’s satellite Internet service, also intended to compete with Starlink.
Amazon has booked at least 18 Ariane 6 launches. In early August, the Commission designated the acquisition of launch services for IRIS² as one of the next steps.
Gn world
