Europe’s security depends on what Europe can see

In the first hours of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it was commercial satellites that showed the world what was happening inside the battle zone — filling the gap from a lack of sovereign space assets. These privately-owned and operated systems were, and still are, critical to Ukraine’s defense providing high-resolution imagery to track troop movements, damage and logistics. Four years later, with security concerns continuing near Europe’s borders and geopolitical developments unfolding in the Middle East, Europe is still watching much of its own security through someone else’s eyes.

The brief interruption of intelligence flows from Washington to Kyiv in 2025 was a reminder that even the closest alliances operate within political cycles.

As John le Carré observed in his spy novels, those who depend on the eyes of others depend on their judgement. In this Cold War world, the British service had a name for the Americans whose companies now operate many of these satellites: “the Cousins” — allies, who are generous with information, but always choose what falls inside the frame.

The brief interruption of intelligence flows from Washington to Kyiv in 2025 was a reminder that even the closest alliances operate within political cycles.

This situation is deeply uncomfortable for Europe, a continent striving for strategic autonomy. But we have the means to change it.

Europe has world-class space companies. Large primes with decades of experience and the industrial muscle to deliver complex systems at scale. Younger companies, including ICEYE, that have learned to design, build and launch satellites in months rather than years. National agencies with deep technical expertise. A vibrant downstream sector turning data into operational decisions. What it lacks is speed.

Across European technology, we have grown comfortable with delay, and uncomfortable with risk. Procurement cycles stretch across years, prioritizing process over outcomes. The result is familiar: Europe turns to non-European solutions not because it must, but because it did not move fast enough to build its own.

This is a systemic issue and it requires a systemic response. Europe needs ambitious, well-designed flagship programs that pull the entire ecosystem forward at once: programs that combine the scale and reliability of established primes with the speed and agility of newer companies, and reward both for delivering operational capability quickly.

Earlier this year, EU Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius reminded a Brussels audience that ‘without secure connectivity, there is no defense’. He is right. But the same logic applies, just as urgently, to the eyes Europe uses to see what is happening on the ground.

The groundwork has already been laid. This week, ICEYE will officially hand over a fully operational sovereign space-based intelligence system to the Polish government, just 12 months from contract signature to full operational capability. To our knowledge, this will be the fastest deployment of a sovereign space system, not just in Europe, but the world, and demonstrates what is already possible in Europe, at scale.

The model is simple: national assets remain under national control but can be used collectively when Europe needs them.

The ICEYE satellites and ground segment, developed together with Polish industry for the Polish Armed Forces, offers an end-to-end operational system. It is also the first sovereign space capability that will serve their operational units — a system that will be working on European soil, with European technology, under European control.

This is why Europe should be developing a concept that we call Constellation Europe: a federated network of more than 1,000 European-owned satellites, combining national systems, commercial assets and institutional capabilities into a true system of systems operated as a single framework.

The model is simple: national assets remain under national control but can be used collectively when Europe needs them. The architecture brings together three key functional layers. First, there is a sensing layer combining electro-optical, synthetic aperture radar and signals intelligence satellites, giving Europe continuous coverage in all weather and around the clock, fused into one operational picture. Second, it features a secure data-transport layer that moves information between satellites and ground systems with the low latency and resilience that defense operations now demand. Finally, a broader sovereign operations layer covers space situational awareness, protection of critical assets in orbit, sovereign ground infrastructure, and AI-driven data processing and fusion, ensuring the system can operate securely, autonomously and at speed, and be rapidly deployed and replenished when needed.

The question is no longer whether Europe can build space-based security at scale. It has begun. The question is whether Europe can deliver operational readiness in time.

With the right political commitment, it could be operational by 2030. What we need is clear political leadership from the European Commission to prioritize space sovereignty by aligning policy, budget and requirements with haste, such that companies can objectively prove their ability to execute against an aggressive timeline. To start, the Commission must take three decisive steps.

A federated, multi-layered constellation of 1,000 satellites is not science fiction. It is a necessary and achievable outcome for European security.

First, incentivize member state cooperation with proactive policy. Discrete capabilities already exist in the form of independent sovereign programs. Space systems the likes of which ICEYE is currently building for seven member states are not today collaborative by design, but they can be.

Second, funding must outpace the challenge. The next Multiannual Financial Framework must lock in predictable, multi-year funding for sovereign space systems like Constellation Europe. Not pilots. Not demos. Not exercises. Not stop-start cycles. Industrial capacity requires industrial certainty, full stop.

Third, acquisition reform is the cornerstone of modernizing EU space security. Europe is not starting from zero. It is starting from legacy requirement processes that resulted in fragmentation. The European Commission, working with member states and the European Space Agency, must define a unified European space architecture. Specific roles and responsibilities, common procurement, shared standards and real interoperability that matches forecasted end-user needs. This cannot be achieved by committees over 10 years; it must be done within 10 months for any chance at fielding before the end of the decade.

A federated, multi-layered constellation of 1,000 satellites is not science fiction. It is a necessary and achievable outcome for European security.

In the next crisis, Europe will not be judged on what it could have built in orbit, but on whether it converted lessons learned in other theatres to real deterrence.

Disclaimer

POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT

• The sponsor is ICEYE.
• The advertisement is linked to the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), Space Shield, Space Act.

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