Starlink Alternative: Rheinmetall and OHB Apparently Planning Collaboration
The arms manufacturer Rheinmetall and the satellite manufacturer OHB want to compete with Airbus for the Bundeswehr's largest satellite project.
(Image: CG Alex/Shutterstock.com)
Rheinmetall and the space and technology group OHB are apparently planning a collaboration to develop a satellite-based communication network for the Bundeswehr. This is reported by Handelsblatt and the Financial Times based on their own sources. The arms manufacturer and the Bremen-based satellite manufacturer intend to jointly bid for the Bundeswehr's largest satellite project to date. However, negotiations are said to still be in an early initial stage.
Last year, Federal Minister of Defence Pistorius announced at the Space Congress of the Federation of German Industries that a military satellite communication network of at least one hundred satellites in low Earth orbit was to be established. With an estimated order value of eight to ten billion euros, the SATCOMBw Stage 4 satellite communication project is part of a 35 billion euro budget. Germany intends to allocate for investments in military space technologies by the end of the decade.
In contrast to the Stage 3 system, SATCOMBw Stage 4 no longer relies on a few geostationary satellites in orbits of around 36,000 kilometers altitude. While geostationary satellites provide broad signal coverage, they are limited by high signal latency. SATCOMBw Stage 4, on the other hand, is intended to rely on a network of many satellites in a low Earth orbit of only a few hundred kilometers altitude. This would make the system very similar to the commercial satellite network Starlink operated by Elon Musk's company SpaceX. According to Handelsblatt, the SATCOMBw Stage 4 satellite constellation is to be operational by 2029.
Direct Competition to Airbus
The apparently planned cooperation between Rheinmetall and OHB would be in direct competition with the European aerospace and defense group Airbus. The European aerospace and defense group has also applied for the SATCOMBw Stage 4 satellite project. In the summer of 2024, Airbus announced in a press release that it had received the prime contract for the previous SATCOMBw Stage 3 system. According to Airbus, the contract includes the development, integration, testing, and in-orbit delivery of two new geostationary telecommunications satellites. According to the Federal Ministry of Defence, SATCOMBw Stage 3 is to be operational by 2027.
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