Brussels moves to bring Ukraine into EU secure satellite network

The European Commission has begun talks with Ukraine on its potential participation in the European Union’s secure satellite communications systems GOVSATCOM and IRIS, Euractiv reported on September 11.

The discussions concern Ukraine’s access to GOVSATCOM, the EU’s secure governmental satellite communications system, as well as IRIS, a satellite constellation that is still under development.

In the longer term, such integration could allow Ukrainian and European military forces to coordinate operations using a shared secure communications system.

EU Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius has previously said that Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Norway could potentially join IRIS.

The EU’s development of its own secure satellite communications capabilities is also linked to efforts to reduce its dependence on US infrastructure.

IRIS, or Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, is a planned multi-orbit EU satellite constellation for secure communications. It is intended to serve government authorities, security agencies and armed forces.

The full deployment of IRIS is scheduled for 2030. Until then, the EU plans to use existing satellite capacity through the GOVSATCOM system.

By Tamilla Hasanova