27 January 2026 the European Commissioner for Defense and Space reported, that the European Union's new government satellite communications program GOVSATCOM launched last week. The program is designed to provide secure communication capabilities for the EU and its member states and plans to expand to 2027 year.
GOVSATCOM is a kind of "marketplace" of government capacities from five resource providers, who are currently participating in the program. It is divided into several phases and currently combines the power of eight satellites in geostationary orbit from five member states - France, of Spain, Italy, Greece and Luxembourg. The program currently offers 35 various services, which are only available to member states and are fully secured and encrypted. The coverage extends from southern Greenland to South America in the west and to India in the east.
IN 2027 they plan to expand the scope of services this year, to close the gaps and attract more commercial satellite solutions. Starting with 2029 year GOVSATCOM should integrate with the group of 290 satellites as part of the IRIS² project and become fully operational.
For reference: IRIS² is an EU project to create its own satellite communication system in low and medium Earth orbits to 2030-2031 years, and which is positioned as a European competitor to Starlink.
The commissioner also informed, that military Ka-band frequencies for IRIS² were already commissioned last week and expressed confidence, that the first batch of satellites will be ready for deployment by 2029 year.
As of today, Ukraine is not implementing any space projects with non-RCC member states, The EU aims to expand trade opportunities, which will work until 2027 year, including expanding coverage and bandwidth to reach the entire world,
as well as support IRIS² to 2029 year.
Source: https://spacenews.com