ESA Programme related to EU Secure Connectivity IRIS²

ESA is cooperating with the European Commission to develop one of the EU’s flagship space programmes: the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) . 

Led by the European Commission, IRIS² is a bold and strategic endeavour for Europe’s future in space communications, connectivity, resilience and sovereignty. Through its ESA Programme Related to EU Secure Connectivity (often referred to as the ESA Secure Connectivity or ESA IRIS² programme), the European Space Agency (ESA) plays a pivotal role by serving as the technical backbone, industrial orchestrator and oversight authority that bridges the EU’s policy ambition with industrial delivery.

The ESA Secure Connectivity programme consists of the following three elements:

• Element 1: Covering ESA Contribution to the definition, development and validation of the EU Secure Connectivity governmental infrastructure which will provide the services restricted to government authorised users requiring a high-level of security (referred to as “Hard Gov” services). Under this element, ESA is contributing ~€550 million euro to the programme in the framework of a Partnership Project contract between ESA and the SpaceRISE consortium. Belgium has subscribed to the element 1 at both CM22 and CM25.
• Element 2: Covering activities on the validation and demonstration of commercial services or services offered to governmental users (referred to as “Light Gov” services) based on the commercial infrastructure developed by the contractor(s) delivering the EU Secure Connectivity governmental infrastructure. This element has not been subscribed by member states at neither CM22 or CM25, so no activities are foreseen in the current period.
• Element 3: This element was newly added to the programme at CM25. It will cover activities to boost user uptake, enable experimentation and derisking for the expansion of Low-LEO layer concepts and missions and finally study concepts for future evolution of IRIS² as system-of-systems communications backbone. Belgium has subscribed to this element at CM25.