Reconnaissance Satellite Systems

Space imaging technology is today crucial for national security and peacekeeping, for crisis management, and for decision-making in the thick of military action.

With potential crises and conflicts throughout the world, access to the fullest, most accurate information as quickly as possible is of crucial importance for appropriate situational assessment. In military operations, authorities must identify targets, plan missions and evaluate risk.

Space is the ideal platform for observation and monitoring tasks as remote-sensing satellites can cover a far greater surface area of the earth than either airborne or ground facilities. They can identify and locate even very small objects of strategic and operational interest and revisit them any number of times in a time-frame compatible with the unfolding of a crisis situation. Recent experience of the use of satellite observation systems has made them indispensable – and within a few years a new dynamic based on international co-operation will open up an even wider dimension for European countries.

A new dimension for European surveillance

Data from high-resolution optical satellite systems and all-weather, day-and-night vision radar satellite systems are complementary – together generate an information base of much increased power which strengthens operational interpretation and analysis.

Within a few years, at least five European countries will have at their disposal an unprecedented wealth of satellite observation data; as a result of innovative bilateral international agreements (France–Germany, France–Italy), data access rights will be exchanged between the Helios II optical system (a French–Belgian–Spanish partnership programme) and the German SAR-Lupe and Italian Cosmo-Skymed radar systems. The next-generation French optical satellites, Pleïades, are also under development in conjunction with Cosmo-Skymed in the Franco-Italian Orfeo dual programme. The ability to combine information from optical and radar images will provide Europe with a greatly enhanced intelligence-gathering tool.