The model is simple: national assets remain under national control but can be used collectively when Europe needs them.
The ICEYE satellites and ground segment, developed together with Polish industry for the Polish Armed Forces, offers an end-to-end operational system. It is also the first sovereign space capability that will serve their operational units — a system that will be working on European soil, with European technology, under European control.
This is why Europe should be developing a concept that we call Constellation Europe: a federated network of more than 1,000 European-owned satellites, combining national systems, commercial assets and institutional capabilities into a true system of systems operated as a single framework.
The model is simple: national assets remain under national control but can be used collectively when Europe needs them. The architecture brings together three key functional layers. First, there is a sensing layer combining electro-optical, synthetic aperture radar and signals intelligence satellites, giving Europe continuous coverage in all weather and around the clock, fused into one operational picture. Second, it features a secure data-transport layer that moves information between satellites and ground systems with the low latency and resilience that defense operations now demand. Finally, a broader sovereign operations layer covers space situational awareness, protection of critical assets in orbit, sovereign ground infrastructure, and AI-driven data processing and fusion, ensuring the system can operate securely, autonomously and at speed, and be rapidly deployed and replenished when needed.
The question is no longer whether Europe can build space-based security at scale. It has begun. The question is whether Europe can deliver operational readiness in time.
With the right political commitment, it could be operational by 2030. What we need is clear political leadership from the European Commission to prioritize space sovereignty by aligning policy, budget and requirements with haste, such that companies can objectively prove their ability to execute against an aggressive timeline. To start, the Commission must take three decisive steps.
A federated, multi-layered constellation of 1,000 satellites is not science fiction. It is a necessary and achievable outcome for European security.
First, incentivize member state cooperation with proactive policy. Discrete capabilities already exist in the form of independent sovereign programs. Space systems the likes of which ICEYE is currently building for seven member states are not today collaborative by design, but they can be.
