The partnership covers low Earth orbit satellites, ground infrastructure and ruggedised user terminals. Governments will have ownership and control of each element.
“Nations must be able to fully own and control their communications, without dependency on a foreign commercial operator’s terms of service,” said Rafal Modrzewski, ICEYE’s chief executive and co-founder. The systems will be built on European technology.
The companies said the networks will provide high-throughput, low-latency connectivity over priority mission areas. They will complement existing military and commercial networks by adding reach, resilience and capacity.
The systems are intended to maintain communications when terrestrial networks are disrupted or compromised. Defence forces, emergency responders and civil authorities depend on those connections for access to information and command systems.
“Sovereign operations depend on the ability to sense, decide and act in real time,” said Justin Hotard, Nokia’s president and chief executive. “Physical AI makes that possible, but only with secure, resilient connectivity across land, sea, air and space.”
ICEYE will contribute its experience in delivering sovereign satellite missions. Nokia will provide secure networking expertise through a partnership that extends ICEYE’s space intelligence business model into communications.
“We delivered Poland its own radar satellite system in under a year,” Modrzewski said. “Partnering with Nokia lets us move at a similar speed for satellite communications, on the timelines nations need.”
Modrzewski and Hotard will speak at the Helsinki Security Forum on October 2. Their session is titled “How to Salvage Europe’s Technological Sovereignty.”
