France and Poland are going to build a military communications satellite together, as announced by the companies involved in the project on Monday. This comes as Paris and Warsaw strengthen their economic and defense ties.
Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Defence and Space, and the Polish company RADMOR will jointly develop a geostationary orbit satellite to support the military communications of the Polish armed forces.
The transaction amount, revealed during a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Gdansk on Monday, was not disclosed.
This initiative is part of the “Readiness” defense plan, a flagship program of the European Commission aiming to prepare the continent for its own defense by 2030, according to the companies in a statement.
Europe is looking to develop alternative indigenous satellite services to counter its global rivals and reduce its dependency on Starlink, amidst growing concerns about the unpredictable politics of its owner, billionaire Elon Musk.
Unlike Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit, a geostationary spacecraft can cover vast regions from a fixed position more than 30,000 km above Earth, albeit with slower speeds.
NUCLEAR DETERRENCE AT THE HEART OF DISCUSSIONS
Emmanuel Macron and Donald Tusk, two of the most pro-European leaders in the Union, also discussed nuclear deterrence, energy, and the EU’s SAFE (Security Action for Europe) initiative, equipped with 150 billion euros, at the Gdansk summit.
In a treaty signed last year, France and Poland, with the latter showing the highest defense spending in NATO as a percentage of GDP, included a clause of mutual assistance and a commitment to deepen military and technological ties between the two nations.
Macron stated in March that France, the only nuclear power in the EU, would expand its arsenal and enhance its deterrence through unprecedented cooperation with its European partners.
“It is logical to advance together on missile defense, long-range capabilities, early warning systems, and also to explore all that we can do together in the space domain,” said the French president to journalists on Monday.
