Warsaw: In a bid to secure an Earth observation system for the country’s armed forces, Poland is advancing a project to have its first three military satellites launched this month.
Developed by a consortium of Finnish manufacturer ICEYE and Wojskowe Zakłady Łączności No 1, an offshoot of Poland’s state-run defence group PGZ, the national satellite reconnaissance system will be the first component of the military space capabilities Warsaw aims to field in the coming years, defence officials said.
The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite is to be deployed into low Earth orbit onboard the next Transporter-15 mission by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California was initially scheduled for November 11 in what would mark Poland’s Independence Day. The deployment has been postponed and is currently scheduled for November 19.
The initiative is part of Poland’s efforts to ramp up its military reconnaissance capacities amid an ongoing Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
“We are developing today a very important capacity for the Polish military, a capacity that the military has not had to date,” Polish Deputy National Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said during a November 13 event devoted to the project in Warsaw. “We are developing the capacities of targeting, and … we are joining a group of countries that have such capacities.”
Under the contract the Polish Ministry of National Defence signed with the manufacturer consortium last May, the country’s military is to receive at least three satellites under the MikroSAR programme, with an option to acquire a further three spacecraft. The initial deal is worth around PLN 860 million ($237 million).
