The plans to launch Poland’s first military satellite, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite built by the Polish-Finnish consortium ICEYE, will be from Vandenberg AFB in California on November 22. The launch was originally planned for November 11, which coincidentally is Veterans day here in the states.
This is all part of Poland’s plan to secure an Earth observation system for the country’s armed forces and will have its first three military satellites launched this month aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-15 mission. Poland is ramping up its military reconnaissance capacities due to the continual Russian attempts to invade its neighbor, the Ukraine.
The satellite is developed by a consortium of Finnish manufacturer ICEYE and Wojskowe Zakłady Łączności No 1, a branch of Poland’s state-run defense group PGZ, and is part of the national satellite reconnaissance system that will be Warsaw’s first commitment of the military space capabilities that are planned on committing in the coming years.
Under the contract the Polish Ministry of National Defense signed with the manufacturer consortium last May, the country’s military receives at least three satellites under the MikroSAR program, with an option to acquire a further three spacecraft. The initial deal is worth around PLN 860 million ($237 million).
Polish Deputy National Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk said during a November 13 event regarding the project in Warsaw, “We are developing today a very important capacity for the Polish military, a capacity that the military has not had to date. We are developing the capacities of targeting, and … we are joining a group of countries that have such capacities.”
