On Thursday, September 10, 2026, satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space—a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%)—announced the signing of a Letter of Agreement with satellite operator Eutelsat.
Under the agreement, Thales Alenia Space will design and manufacture the secure digital governmental payloads for 330 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) telecommunications satellites operating as part of the European Union’s Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnection and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) constellation.
The award represents an initial order tranche valued at approximately €500 million. Over the lifecycle of the IRIS² program, Thales Alenia Space’s total industrial contract volume is projected to exceed €3 billion.
Program History and Concession Framework
The payload contract execution represents a major manufacturing milestone for the European Union’s flagship sovereign satellite constellation. The program is managed under a multi-billion-euro public-private partnership (PPP) concession awarded by the European Commission, which formally advanced when the European Commission and the SpaceRISE consortium signed the overarching IRIS² concession contract in Brussels.
The SpaceRISE consortium—comprising major European satellite operators including Eutelsat, SES, and Hispasat—was selected by the European Commission to design, build, and operate the multi-orbit IRIS² system. Within the consortium architecture, Eutelsat serves as the System Development Prime for the LEO segment, leading the procurement of LEO space segment hardware.
Digital Payload Architecture and Technical Specifications
The agreement covers the development and production of digital processing payloads for 330 LEO spacecraft operating at an orbital altitude of 1,200 kilometers. The spacecraft manifest is divided into two distinct payload configurations:
- Ka-Band Dedicated Spacecraft: 66 satellites fitted exclusively with Ka-band active array payloads to deliver high-capacity throughput for institutional government backhaul.
- Dual Ku/Ka-Band Spacecraft: 264 satellites equipped with dual Ku/Ka-band digital payloads to provide hybrid coverage for government civil protection and commercial B2B services.
- Active Beamforming Antennas: Features electronically steered active phase-array antennas to dynamically concentrate RF power over specific geographic zones of interest during crisis response scenarios.
- Native 5G Integration: Incorporates software-defined 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) protocol stacks directly within the onboard processors to facilitate seamless handover with terrestrial mobile networks.
- Inter-Satellite Optical Links: Connects individual spacecraft via laser communication terminals (LCTs) to route data traffic across the orbital plane without relying on intermediate ground relay stations.
Sovereign Dual-Use Rationale and Strategic Context
IRIS² is designed to establish an independent, secure communications backbone for European Union member states, reducing dependence on non-European commercial satellite constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink. The multi-orbit system—which will eventually integrate 330 LEO satellites with 18 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) spacecraft at 8,000 kilometers altitude—provides encrypted command-and-control channels for defense forces, border security agencies, emergency management personnel, and critical infrastructure operators.
Beyond direct telecommunications, the high-throughput LEO segment will function as an orbital data-relay network for European Earth observation satellites (such as the Copernicus constellation) and Galileo navigation assets, accelerating data downlinks to ground processing centers in near-real-time.
