Demand for sovereign systems extends to the Earth-observation stack

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – At the recent World Economic Forum in Switzerland, much of the conversation revolved around the concerns of middle powers, nations with the wherewithal to influence international events that are not among the great powers.

At the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, representatives of Earth-observation companies said middle powers that previously relied on space systems operated by powerful allies or partners are now clamoring for sovereign capabilities.

“It’s clear that the geopolitical situation of today has induced all the countries in the world to think about sovereign capabilities not only in the Earth-observation domain but also telecommunications, connectivity solutions,” Marino Fragnito, Thales Alenia Space senior vice president sales and marketing, said Feb. 10.

SmallSat Symposium panelists agreed, though, that not many middle powers can afford their own Earth- observation satellites plus ground systems and analytics. In addition to the hefty upfront investment required to establish the infrastructure, operating expenses for sovereign systems would remain high for many years.

Budget Concerns

As a result, middle powers will decide what type of sovereign systems they can afford.

For some countries, that means acquiring sensors, individual Earth-observation satellites or entire constellations. Other nations will invest in Earth-observation tasking or downlink capacity, while relying on partners for the rest, said Marco Esposito, Cosine Remote Sensing managing director.

Dan Adams, KSAT Inc. president and general manager, agreed that most countries won’t be able to acquire the entire vertical stack of Earth-observation capabilities right away. Still, growing demand for sovereign capability is creating a huge opportunity for companies that offer products many nations seek, like maritime-domain monitoring.

“It is a very demanding and complex time,” Adams said. “But the good news is, from a commercial satellite perspective, there is more opportunity than challenge.”

Canada and Europe

National approaches to acquiring sovereign capabilities vary widely.

Canada, for example, has been pursuing sovereign capabilities for years, from launch services to synthetic aperture radar and hyperspectral capabilities, said Francis Doumet, CEO of Vancouver-based Metaspectral.

In missile defense, nations are continuing to work together closely.

“Especially for Arctic defense, Arctic response, Canada has a lot of early warning stations that the U.S. needs for missile defense and for Golden Dome,” Doumet said. “Fom our side, from a data analytics technology provider, we’re not seeing any friction whatsoever when it comes to working together.”

European nations continue to pool resources. After investing in sovereign priorities, European countries are “putting their resources together in order to have shared infrastructure,” Fragnito said.