EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push

BRUSSELS —  The European Union’s new government satellite communications program, GOVSATCOM, which pools capacity from eight already on-orbit geosynchronous satellites, began operations last week, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius said Jan. 27.

The program is designed to provide secure communications capabilities to the EU and its member states and could expand by 2027, Kubilius said.

“Last week we started GOVSATCOM operations,” Kubilius said during his opening remarks at the European Space Conference. “That means that all member states can now have access to sovereign satellite communications — military and government, secure and resilient, built in Europe, operated in Europe, and under European control.”

Specifically, Kubilius was referring to the GOVSATCOM hub, a “marketplace” of governmental capacities from the five resource providers currently enrolled in the program. Juan Ramon Lopez Caravantes, head of communication at the European Union Agency for the Space Programme, said that with ”a few clicks member states can now introduce their service request. It’s an easy to use, smooth running secure platform”.

GOVSATCOM is conceived as a “system of systems,” merging existing national and commercial satellite capacities into a common EU pool. The program is structured in multiple phases, and is pooling capacity from eight existing, already-in-orbit GEO satellites from five member states — France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Luxembourg. 

“They currently offer 35 different service programs from a catalogue that is not public. It’s only for the member states, and it’s fully secured and encrypted” added Jeremie Godet, head of unit secure connectivity and space surveillance at European Commission’s Directorate General office for defence industry and space. “The coverage is currently from the south of Greenland to South America on the west and up to India on the East.”

In 2027 this catalog will expand, Godet added, to fill gaps and to secure more commercial satcom solutions. 

Beginning in 2029, GOVSATCOM is expected to integrate with the 290 satellites in the  Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite constellation, known as IRIS², and be fully operational.

“The goal”, Kubilius said during the conference “is to have expanded commercial capabilities operational by 2027, including expanding coverage, and expanding bandwidth to cover the entire world,” and to support IRIS² by 2029.

Concerning IRIS², the commissioner also said that IRIS² Ka-band military frequencies were brought into use last week. He expressed confidence that the first batch of satellites will be ready for deployment by 2029. “I have asked all partners to step up and speed up IRIS²,“and I’m confident we can deploy its initial services by 2029,” he said.

“The goal is connectivity and security for all of Europe — guaranteed access for all member states and full European control.”