Summary
- CybExer is leading a ten-company consortium developing end-to-end testing for protected European satellite communications.
- Planned scenarios span satellite links, ground infrastructure, operators, drone communications, and command-and-control environments.
- IRIS² has entered full-scale deployment with 348 satellites planned, while total programme investment is now expected to exceed €15.6bn.
A European consortium led by CybExer is developing an end-to-end capability to test protected satellite communications under interference, disruption, and cyberattack before systems associated with Europe’s IRIS² programme become part of critical government and security operations.
The Estonia-based cybersecurity company said the project will examine the communications chain from the satellite link and ground infrastructure through to the end user, rather than testing each component in isolation. Planned scenarios include communications supporting drone operations and command and control in contested environments.
The work formally began on 17 September as part of the European Space Agency’s Low-LEO consolidation phase. ESA separately confirmed that it signed 18 contracts worth €20 million, bringing together almost 80 European companies to study secure and resilient governmental connectivity services and associated mission concepts.
Those projects cover areas including secure government broadband, maritime operations, aviation and airspace, data relay, and tasking. ESA intends to use the consolidation phase to assess technical feasibility, interoperability, and potential operational value before selected concepts proceed towards pre-operational validation between 2027 and 2029.
CybExer’s project goes further into the cyber-resilience question by examining what happens when disruption affects several parts of the communications system at once. A satellite link can remain technically functional while a gateway, terrestrial connection, terminal, identity layer, or operational application fails or is compromised. Conversely, interference at the space segment can create consequences that propagate through ground infrastructure to the systems depending on it.
Kristiina Omri, Vice President of Special Programmes at CybExer and Project Manager, said: “Once technology has been deployed in orbit, identifying weaknesses – and fixing them – becomes considerably more difficult. We need reliable evidence of how these systems behave under disruption and attack before they become part of critical operations.”
The consortium also includes CGI Estonia, CR14, DamoTech, Hellas Sat, KrattWorks, M3S Italia, Magister Solutions, Rantelon, and Spaceit, with participants from Estonia, Finland, Greece, and Italy. Those project-specific details come from CybExer’s release; ESA’s public announcement confirms the wider Low-LEO programme but does not enumerate the individual consortium.
IRIS² itself moved from planning into full-scale deployment in August. The revised architecture adds 66 satellites to the previous design, bringing the main constellation to 348 spacecraft — 330 in low Earth orbit and 18 in medium Earth orbit.
The programme is intended to provide sovereign and resilient communications for European governments, security and defence users, emergency services, businesses, and other authorised users. Its ground infrastructure is correspondingly important: IRIS² is not simply a fleet of spacecraft but a distributed communications system whose security depends on gateways, control systems, terrestrial interconnections, user equipment, and operational procedures.
Total planned investment in the programme now exceeds €15.6 billion, according to SpaceRISE consortium member Hispasat following the August implementation agreement. That figure reflects the enlarged programme and should be distinguished from the lower value attached to the original concession when it was signed in 2024.
Testing resilience before operational dependence develops is especially relevant where satellite communications are expected to support emergency, security, or defence missions. Jamming, degraded connectivity, cyber compromise, and failures in supporting ground systems can produce different effects when they occur together rather than as isolated engineering problems.
The Low-LEO work gives Europe a pre-operational environment in which some of those assumptions can be tested before they are embedded in live services. For IRIS², whose purpose includes maintaining connectivity during crises and disruption, evidence about how the complete communications chain behaves under hostile conditions will be as important as the nominal performance of the satellites themselves.
