Europe puts $1.6 bn behind OneWeb as push for sovereign alternative to Starlink gathers pace

Europe is committing another €1 billion ($1.16 billion) to keep Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation growing into the next decade, as governments accelerate efforts to build satellite communications networks that do not depend entirely on US providers such as SpaceX.

Eutelsat has agreed to procure another 229 low-Earth orbit satellites from Airbus Defence and Space, adding to 440 spacecraft already ordered in 2024 and 2025. The latest batch will allow the company to replenish ageing satellites and expand OneWeb through 2034, while Europe develops its much larger IRIS2 secure communications programme.

The order takes the number of new OneWeb satellites assigned to Airbus to 669. The first spacecraft from the earlier 440-satellite order are expected to be delivered in the coming quarter.

It is the scale and timing of that investment, rather than the Airbus order alone, that matters. OneWeb is currently the only fully operational global LEO communications network under European control. Europe is now spending heavily to preserve that capability while IRIS2 moves from planning into hardware.

“Together, they give us a powerful roadmap to serve our customers, grow our LEO business and reinforce our role at the heart of Europe’s sovereign connectivity future,” Eutelsat CEO Jean-François Fallacher said of OneWeb and IRIS2.

OneWeb gives Europe an operational network while IRIS2 is being built

OneWeb has more than 600 satellites operating in 12 orbital planes at an altitude of about 1,200 km. The network provides high-speed, low-latency communications for government, enterprise, aviation and maritime customers.

It remains tiny by comparison with Starlink, which now has more than 11,000 satellites in orbit. But the two networks were not built around identical models.

Starlink serves a huge consumer market alongside commercial and government customers. OneWeb has concentrated on governments, telecommunications companies and other professional users. Its satellites also fly higher than Starlink spacecraft, allowing global coverage with a considerably smaller constellation.

Eutelsat told a House of Lords committee that OneWeb provides average global two-way latency of around 70 milliseconds. The company described it as one of only two commercially active global LEO constellations.

The 229 new satellites will also be more than straightforward replacements. They will carry advanced digital channelisers intended to improve onboard processing, efficiency and flexibility, while allowing additional hosted payloads to fly alongside OneWeb’s Ku-band communications mission.

Airbus will manufacture the spacecraft in Toulouse on the production infrastructure already handling the earlier batches.

Eutelsat has separately booked two Ariane 64 missions to launch OneWeb satellites in 2027 and 2028, bringing European launch capacity into the replenishment programme.

Britain’s Starshield spending shows why satellite sovereignty has moved up the agenda

The investment comes as European governments confront a difficult near-term reality: their demand for resilient LEO communications is growing faster than sovereign European alternatives can be fielded.

As ADS Advance reported this week, the UK has spent nearly £30 million ($40 million) on SpaceX satellite services and is increasingly using the company’s military-focused Starshield service for operational communications. The Ministry of Defence has around 1,000 Starshield terminals alongside approximately 500 Starlink terminals.

Britain’s decision illustrates the attraction of an existing commercial constellation with global coverage and enormous scale. It also helps explain why OneWeb has acquired strategic importance.

The UK has a direct interest in the network. OneWeb was rescued from bankruptcy in 2020 with backing from the British government and India’s Bharti Global before combining with France’s Eutelsat in 2023.

In evidence to Parliament, Eutelsat described OneWeb as a UK-regulated and operated system that strengthens British and European resilience in an increasingly contested space environment. It said OneWeb’s UK infrastructure would be important for secure and reliable satellite connectivity.

France has gone further in putting OneWeb directly into its defence communications plans. In June, the French Ministry of Defence has signed a €1 billion ($1.6 billion), 10-year agreement with Eutelsat covering access to the constellation and further hardening of the network for defence and national-security requirements.

That means OneWeb is increasingly being treated not simply as another broadband provider, but as infrastructure with strategic value.

IRIS2 begins moving from European ambition into satellite hardware

The other half of Europe’s strategy is IRIS2, short for Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite.

Work on that constellation is now moving into its industrial phase.

Airbus this week received the go-ahead to begin work on at least 66 IRIS2 satellites. Thales Alenia Space, meanwhile, secured an initial agreement worth about €500 million ($580 million) to provide government communications payloads for 330 spacecraft.

Eutelsat will lead the design, deployment and operation of the IRIS2 LEO segment. Its commercial Ku-band constellation is expected to become operational by mid-2032 and, according to Eutelsat, will provide access to more than twice OneWeb’s present capacity.

OneWeb therefore does not disappear when IRIS2 arrives. Eutelsat sees the two as complementary.

“The planned addition of 229 more satellites will further strengthen OneWeb, while IRIS2 will bring significant new capacity and capabilities,” Fallacher said.

For Airbus, the industrial implications are equally important. The OneWeb programme maintains a European production line capable of turning out satellites in volume while IRIS2 ramps up.

“This is also a further step for European sovereignty,” Alain Faure, head of Space Systems at Airbus Defence and Space, said of the latest OneWeb agreement.

Europe is not trying to match Starlink satellite for satellite

Even with another 229 spacecraft, OneWeb will remain far smaller than Starlink. Europe is also years away from having IRIS2 fully available.

That leaves European governments balancing two requirements. They need the capacity and resilience that existing US commercial networks can provide today, while trying to ensure they retain communications systems over which they have greater long-term control.

The war in Ukraine has sharpened that debate. Satellite broadband has proved valuable when terrestrial networks are damaged or unavailable, but it has also exposed the consequences of relying on infrastructure operated by companies outside a government’s direct control.

Eutelsat has made that argument explicitly. Fallacher has described LEO constellations as “a strategic asset — a strategic service — for Europe”, pointing to the years of development and billions of dollars required to establish a global network.