Originally published by Space Intel Report on November 21, 2024. Read the original article here.
LA PLATA, Maryland — The trend toward military predominance as a customer for space-based surveillance that is several years old in the United States now appears to be coming to Europe as companies formed for commercial use are now winning defense business.
Radar satellite constellation operator Iceye of Finland and space situational awareness startup Neuraspace of Portugal described how the evolution took place.
Iceye, one of the premier European startup space successes, had hoped to steer clear of the Ukraine war but was swept into it to a point at which Iceye imagery “is used by Ukrainians and become completely integrated into their operational structure,” said Kacper Grzesiak, Iceye sales director.
“Our images are being sent to solders on the front lines” using less than best-practice security procedures but making it easy to communicate, Grzesiak said Nov. 20 during the EU Space Days conference in Budapest, organized by the European Commission and the Hungarian EU presidency.
Iceye’s value to Ukraine was publicly demonstrated in mid-2022 when a crowdsourced funding effort to purchase a Turkish Bayraktar drone ended with Turkey donating one. The money that was raised was repurposed to purchase an Iceye satellite, whose success on the battlefield is now regularly recounted on social media.
Iceye considers itself a Finnish-Polish company insofar as one-quarter of its 500-person staff are in Warsaw, with the rest in Finland. Poland recently joined the NATO Allied Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program in which satellite data is shared among program participants.
Iceye is also participating in the planning of the NATO Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise, CWIX, whose goal is to standardize interfaces among NATO members.
Icye recently joined a Finnish Ministry of Defense program to use AI to deliver geospatial analytics as part of Finland’s F-35 program that will include the development of mobile intelligence, surveillance reconnaissance cells in collaboration with F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
In addition to operating its own fleet of 38 synthetic-aperture radar satellites, Iceye has sold a spacecraft to MDA Space of Canada and sold seven to Space 42 of the United Arab Emirates.
Iceye could be an example of why the European Commission does not need to purchase its own geospatial assets for a proposed Earth Observation Governmental program, to include high-resolution imaging satellites dedicated to government uses, military and civil. Instead, the Commission could rely on commercially available data for much of its needs, purchasing its own satellites only to assure imagery availability over hotspots.
Neuraspace, a startup which uses AI/ML to classify how objects behave in space, in September won a breakthrough contract with the European Defense Fund (EDF) as part of a 47-consortium called EMISSARY, or European Military Integrated Space Situational Awareness and Recognition capabilitY.
The program, co-funded by the Leonardo-led consortium and the Commission, is budget at 158 million euros ($167 million) over four years.
Neuraspace Chief Executive Chiara Manfletti said the EMISSARY contract is likely to open doors for Neuraspace with other governments and with commercial customers.
“Government and institutional funding provides stability. Investors like that,” Manfletti said. “Public investment is a multiplier by making sure [startups] can actually sell services.”
The EDF funding contrasts with what is often a slow-moving defense procurement sector in Europe.
“Governments often don’t by as fast as they could,” Manfletti said. “I was told by one defense customer that five years go buy between the time they set requirements and when the are ready for procurement. These cycles are too long.”
Neuraspace is one of several SSA startups in Europe looking to take part in the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) program, which pools national SSA capabilities and demand. But cracking the code to enter the EU SST ecosystem is not easy.
“You have to apply to five portals in five languages with five different rules,” Manfletti said. “This is mission impossible for a startup.”
Originally published by Space Intel Report on November 21, 2024. Read the original article here.