ICEYE And PGZ Sign Letter Of Intent On Military Satellite Communications System For Poland
Finland's ICEYE and Poland's PGZ agreed to jointly develop a military satellite communications system. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it could lead to a Polish equivalent of Starlink, with work planned for 2026 to 2030.
Finnish space company ICEYE and the Polish state-run defense group PGZ have signed a letter of intent to jointly develop a military satellite communications system, Defense News reported.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the project will open the way to a Starlink-like system for Poland. Speaking on Sept. 9 at the MSPO defense show in Kielce, he said the process that started that day can and will end in a Polish Starlink, a reference to SpaceX's satellite network. Tusk added that anyone following the war between Russia and Ukraine closely knows how critical communications are, and that without them there is nothing to look for on the modern battlefield.
The two companies already cooperate on an Earth observation system for the Polish Armed Forces. ICEYE has delivered synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites to the Polish military under its MikroSAR program. That system is meant to be the first element of a set of military space capabilities that Warsaw plans to build in the coming years. The outlet said Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine has strengthened Poland's push to expand its reconnaissance capacity.
According to PGZ, the new cooperation is to build on experience from MikroSAR. It is to cover development of a space segment based on a distributed architecture, development of domestic ground infrastructure, and creation of industrial capabilities that would let Poland develop and maintain the system independently.
ICEYE said in its own statement that the collaboration is to rest on the partners' complementary roles. The company said it will be the technology partner and PGZ will bring industrial and organizational capabilities.
ICEYE said it will be responsible for the architecture of the satellite system, for designing and manufacturing the space platforms, and for satellite operations. PGZ's role, according to ICEYE, will be to organize the domestic industrial base of the program by identifying companies within the group that will contribute production capabilities, expertise and technical infrastructure.