Airbus announces a €2.1 billion contract with the German army for military satellites.

The French aerospace giant and the German army have sealed a new commitment for military equipment. Airbus announced on Thursday, July 4, the signing of a €2.1 billion contract with the armed forces of our neighbors across the Rhine for the next generation of military communication satellites, named SatcomBw 3.
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oribiting satellite generated by IA as illustration  (Picture source: Army recognition/generated with IA )

The agreement includes the prime contractorship of two satellites "as well as the ground segment [the reception stations], the launch, and the operation for fifteen years," Airbus specified in a statement. German counterparts to the French Syracuse, British Skynet, or Italian Sicral satellites, the SatcomBw 3 are expected to be deployed "before the end of the decade" at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers.

These giants, weighing around six tons, will be built using Airbus's Eurostar Neo platform. They "will have extended capabilities to keep up with the rapid evolution of digitization and the constant increase in the volume of data transfer required," Airbus explained. The German satellite manufacturer OHB and SMEs are also associated with the project.

"After the success of the SatcomBw Stage 2 program, which we have been delivering since 2009, this new contract strengthens our strategic partnership with the Bundeswehr, providing them with a significantly enhanced secure military communications capability designed to be at the forefront for the next decade," said Michael Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defense and Space, as quoted in the statement.

The EU is also working on a constellation project

The Airbus executive also expressed enthusiasm "in these times of challenging Western democracies and the suffering of the institutional European space ecosystem." European satellite manufacturers Thales Alenia Space and Airbus are indeed weakened in their historical market of geostationary communication satellites.

At the end of June, Airbus announced a new provision of €900 million, following one of €600 million in 2023, related "to certain space programs." For its part, Thales Alenia Space reported in March the elimination of 1,300 positions, including 1,000 in France. "The main explanation is the reduction of the geostationary satellite market, which, on average, was about twenty satellites per year in the recent past and is now stabilizing at around ten geostationary satellites per year," explained Patrice Caine, CEO of Thales, at the time.

The arrival on the market of low Earth orbit constellations, notably Starlink by the American company SpaceX, has disrupted the market. These large satellites have greater capabilities but are also much more expensive. The European Union is also working on a secure communications constellation project, IRIS², which will combine geostationary satellites with others in low Earth orbit. Paris has already given up launching a third Syracuse IV satellite to allocate part of its military communications to IRIS².