A German plan to develop its own satellite network won’t undermine a flagship EU project, the head of German space company OHB told AFP, insisting the constellations can complement each other.
The prospect of a renewed bout of tensions over European cooperation comes just days after the collapse of the Franco-German FCAS fighter jet project.
But Marco Fuchs — head of OHB which is involved in the German project — said he did not believe there would be a stark choice between either national constellations or the European Union’s one.
“Germany’s project for its own military satellite constellation for communications is running in parallel with (the EU’s) Iris²,” he said at the ILA air show in Berlin.
“I believe they will grow together,” he added.
The bloc’s Iris² project, launched in 2024, envisages a network of communication satellites aiming to rival US satellite internet providers such as Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Still, the EU project has a long way to go — it aims to put 290 satellites into service by 2031, while Starlink passed the 10,000-satellite mark in March.
OHB, a family-owned firm headquartered in Bremen, has been working since early this year with the defence arm of Airbus and weapons maker Rheinmetall to develop a Starlink-style service for the German armed forces.
Fuchs said that plan differed markedly from the EU project.
“The German army wants a sovereign, autonomous system that is integrated with Germany’s other requirements in space,” he said.
“Iris² is a commercial partnership led by private companies.”
He also pointed out there was no German firm among the three companies leading the European consortium.
But Fuchs still insisted that OHB will strengthen cooperation in the European project, and will have “an important role in both projects”.
– Booming space spending –
Space is a key driver of European military spending, which has grown fast as the region contends with a hostile Russia and worries about US security guarantees under President Donald Trump.
OHB is benefiting from the boom, after making a name for itself with small satellites developed for the EU’s civilian space programmes Galileo and Copernicus.
At the ILA exhibition, OHB showcased a model of a reusable space shuttle currently being developed with France’s Dassault.
Fuchs hoped it could help people forget about the turmoil surrounding FCAS, which collapsed due to tensions between the French manufacturer and Airbus’s Germany-headquartered defence division.
He also dismissed criticism of Dassault from within Germany, saying OHB’s partnership with the French group worked well due to clear guidelines for the project.
This was in contrast to the “rather vague” requirements for the FCAS programme, he said.
Military cooperation projects in Europe must be based on “a substantive consensus” on the part of industry players and “not on political decisions”, he added.
He also spoke out against the planned merger of the space businesses of France’s Thales, Leonardo of Italy, and pan-European group Airbus, as they seek to take on Musk’s SpaceX.
OHB plans to make its unhappiness clear during European Commission consultations with competitors of the players involved in the merger.
Fuchs’s main concern is “being excluded from competition for very large space systems,” for which OHB had until now partnered with Thales.
If that is no longer possible, “there will simply be no more competition” and this “will be costly for customers,” he added.
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