For ICEYE, the German deal is the latest in a handful of high-profile sales to European militaries as the continent moves out on a collective effort to establish "strategic autonomy" in from the United States in the space domain.
NRO Deputy Director Maj. Gen. Christopher Povak said that the spysat agency soon will begin using a new commercial contract vehicle with a five-year "rolling" window for bids.
It's been a whirlwind of a year — and the defense establishment has plenty of thoughts on how it's unfolded and what might come next.
"Going back to pre-Ukraine supplemental procurement levels would see the USG buying only a small fraction of the US commercial SAR capacity available; hardly enough to support combat operations or sustain a healthy US industrial base," said David Gauthier.
The new Stage III contracts are expected by industry officials to be the last of the short term, relatively small dollar awards under the SCC BAA — with senior NRO officials pushing to create a longer term program of record in the fiscal 2026 budget.
"The collaboration includes dedicated satellite capacity and constellation access, which allows the capacity of the entire ICEYE satellite fleet to be utilized," according to a Rheinmetall press release.
"[W]e won't be able to sell the premium technology, which means we'll be out competed by [Finland's] ICEYE and other competitors in the global market," Umbra's Jason Mallare told Breaking Defense.
Standoff capability means warfighters stay connected and remain remotely located in a safer environment while making it harder for adversaries to target them.
"Acquiring and processing satellite imaging data in real time can provide an advantage on the modern battlefield," said Krzysztof Trofiniak, PGZ President of the Management Board.
“This agreement is a significant step in responding to the Government of Ukraine’s urgent request for critical earth observation data and it will greatly benefit our Armed Forces," said Serhiy Prytula, whose eponymous foundation crowdsources kit for the Ukrainian military.
The markup also calls for a comprehensive report on how DoD plans to leverage ISR data from commercial radio frequency (RF) satellites, noting that lawmakers have been "encouraged" by the successful use of RF geolocation in exercises, including by European Command.
ICEYE currently is planning to launch another five satellites this year, Jerry Welsh, CEO of the Finnish firm's US arm, told Breaking Defense. But he did not provide a breakout of those to be built in Finland vice the US.
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Payam Banazadeh, CEO of Capella Space, told Breaking Defense that the Ukraine war has been a "critical place for the industry to show itself," but NRO says it isn't accelerating the SAR acquisition process.
"We've been talking about the fact that space is contested, and we're probably right in the middle now of our first space fight," said Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein.
Additional satellites will help ICEYE reach its goal of imaging the same spot on Earth every eight hours, ICEYE CEO and cofounder Rafal Modrzewski told Breaking Defense.
Later in the contracting process, NRO potentially will "have the wherewithal to purchase ad hoc imagery, data products and the like," said Pete Muend, director of the spy agency's Commercial Systems Program Office.