The space and defense division of Airbus has signed a memorandum of understanding with Rohde & Schwarz, constellr, Orbint, and High Performance Space Structure Systems (HPS) with the aim of jointly developing a satellite-based Earth observation and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) solution.
Under the leadership of Airbus as prime contractor and systems integrator, the alliance brings together five German companies with complementary technological profiles to respond to the increasing demand from governments for sovereign, comprehensive space surveillance capabilities, free from external non-European dependencies, as the company indicated in a statement released this Wednesday.
The CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, Mike Schöllhorn, has stressed that Europe "has the talent, technology, and industrial base to build its own space intelligence infrastructure, as well as the strategic need to do so."
Complementary Capabilities
"This consortium brings together five German companies whose capabilities are truly complementary," Schöllhorn highlighted, emphasizing that together they can "offer a sovereign and comprehensive solution that no single company could offer on its own."
Representing Rohde & Schwarz, Thomas Bohne indicated that this cooperation "demonstrates the value of combining the proven expertise of established players with fresh innovation and highly specialized emerging capabilities to generate operational value for customers."
"Rohde & Schwarz has built its reputation on the basis of first-class radio frequency (RF) technology and mission-critical signal intelligence capabilities," he recalled, emphasizing that they are "committed to collaborating with innovative technology players who bring new perspectives and complementary expertise." The CEO and co-founder of constellr, Max Gulde, stressed that "this is a mission before it is a contract."
Proven Expertise
"We are joining this consortium because thermal infrared recognition - the ability to detect operational activity, equipment status, and early warning indicators that remain invisible to optical and radar sensors - is precisely where the gap in ISR capability is greatest," explained Gulde, noting that they are "proud to contribute to this together with Airbus and to bring a sovereign and already operational German thermal ISR capability to a program of this strategic importance."
The CEO of HPS, Ernst K. Pfeiffer, considered it a "very positive sign that major German prime contractors, such as Airbus Defence and Space, are already incorporating small and medium-sized German supplier companies (SMEs) like HPS into their system concepts from the outset."
"We have the technical capability to deliver, we are extremely agile in scaling, and above all, we are long-term oriented," he added. In turn, the co-CEO of Orbint, Alexander Schmidt, remarked that the operational environment "is changing faster than ever, with increasing complexity in both the space and security domains."
"We are proud to contribute our NewSpace and UniBw M DNA, while our consortium partners contribute industrial performance, scalability, and reliability," Schmidt emphasized. To conclude, Airbus detailed that the five partners bring together complementary capabilities along the entire intelligence chain, as well as proven experience in all phases of modern terrestrial observation and ISR.
Airbus assumes responsibility for the overall mission and system architecture, end-to-end integration, program management, and direct relationship with the institutional customer.