ICEYE sees role as Europe’s defense space-intelligence linchpin

The Finnish firm eyes a satellite fleet large enough to enable ‘tactical’ ground operations without relying on US data.

PARIS — Finland’s ICEYE has a “very big role to play” in giving Europe sovereign access to satellite intelligence, without having to rely on the United States, the company’s Vice President for Missions Joost Elstak said.

European interest in ICEYE rose after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. But it was the U.S. halting intelligence sharing with Ukraine in March 2025 that really underscored the need for sovereign access to space-based intel, Elstak told Defense News.

“The key thing it proved is that you need independent capabilities, and you need a strong alliance,” he said. “You can’t rely on just one node, whoever that node may be.”

Space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, was seen as the toughest area for Europe to achieve self-sufficiency, according to a Defense News survey in February. Most of the surveyed defense experts estimated Europe would need five to 10 years to build sufficient capacity to no longer rely on U.S. space intel.

Since then, and following the U.S. data-sharing pause, ICEYE has signed contracts with the armed forces of Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Finland. All four will have their own deployed capabilities within the next 12 months, with multiple satellites in orbit before 2028, Elstak said.

Europe can achieve “resilience” in space-based ISR, he argued, citing the Dutch example. ICEYE launched the first satellite for the Royal Netherlands Air Force within four months of the June contract, and all four ordered spacecraft are expected to be operational within 24 months.

“So it is within reach, right?” said Elstak.

ICEYE has provided radar-satellite data to Ukraine since 2022, including during the U.S. intel-sharing halt. Experience supplying Ukraine helped the company refine its offering for defense users, said Elstak, who joined the Finnish company in 2023 from Airbus.

As ICEYE adds military customers and becomes more integrated into Europe’s defense-information flows, “we’re becoming more and more of a defense-intelligence company,” Elstak said.

He said ICEYE’s ability to deliver everything from satellites to ground stations, data analysis and training positions it closer to a large space integrator such as Airbus than SAR-data providers Capella Space and Umbra.

Founded in 2014 as a Finnish university spin-off, ICEYE supplies Earth-observation data using synthetic aperture radar, or SAR for short. Because SAR can collect imagery regardless of cloud cover or time of day, any space-based ISR solution is bound to have a “SAR backbone,” Elstak said.

The firm operates what it describes as the world’s largest SAR constellation, with 20 to 30 active satellites, according to Elstak. This allows ICEYE to provide a radar image from any location roughly every 30 to 60 minutes, unrestricted by U.S. export regulations, which the executive called “quite a unique proposition” for the price.

Through its Missions business, governments can buy ICEYE radar satellites and operate them independently. Between five and 10 sovereign satellites are currently in orbit, with at least another 10 to 15 to be launched in the next two years, according to Elstak.

Almost all sovereign customers are also data clients, according to Elstak. He said military customers want their own minimum national capability, but are then happy to procure additional commercial data from ICEYE through credits or leased capacity.

Elstak declined to discuss pricing but referred to ICEYE’s contract with Poland for a reference. In May, the company agreed to provide Poland with an initial batch of three SAR satellites, with an option for three more, under an agreement worth around €200 million.

Elstak said an ICEYE constellation is far cheaper than previous generations of SAR systems, such as Germany’s SARah constellation, which cost around €1 billion for three satellites.

The company in September introduced ISR Cell, a containerized system that gives ground forces tactical access to space-based ISR, aiming to get satellite intel to the battlefield within minutes. First customer deliveries are expected in early 2026.

ICEYE also announced commercial availability of its fourth generation of SAR satellites, with a larger radar antenna for higher-resolution imagery.

A major focus is cutting the time from sensor to shooter. That means getting more satellites in orbit, improving algorithms to compress and transmit data, and using AI-based analytics “to make sure the user actually gets the data that they want,” Elstak said. “Maybe an uglier image in half an hour is more valuable than a pretty image in an hour.”

ICEYE has agreements with SATIM and SafranAI, which provide AI-based analysis of the radar-satellite data to identify objects including vessels and vehicles.

The company is developing concepts including a constellation of more than 100 satellites, which would enable “a look anywhere in the world in like 10 or 15 minutes,” Elstak said. “It becomes very tactical.”

Experience from Ukraine and ICEYE’s expanding fleet shows users want as much information as possible from hot spots, he added. The firm is improving its ability to deliver detail in congested areas through new image-processing techniques and the larger radar on the Gen4 satellites.

ICEYE currently has capacity to build 25 radar satellites per year and plans to scale up “quite fast” to around 40 satellites annually by late 2026, and probably 50 spacecraft a year in a next step, Elstak said. The company set up a manufacturing joint venture with Rheinmetall in Germany earlier this month that will manufacture its first satellite locally in 2026.

ICEYE has been using SpaceX for launches but is exploring alternatives, with slots booked on the Vega launcher operated by ArianeGroup, and is “very interested” in European small-launcher startups as part of a fully sovereign solution, according to Elstak.

For now, however, the urgency among sovereign customers to acquire capacity means they will “typically take whatever is available” to get satellites into orbit, the executive said.

Most of ICEYE’s defense customers previously lacked space-intelligence capabilities, but countries now understand what they need to own and what they can rely on from commercial providers during a crisis, according to Elstak.

“Even if the war were to stop, there’s a general realization of what type of capabilities you must have at a national level. This is not going to go away in the military doctrine.”

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