Budget Committee wants to release 2.1 billion euros for Bundeswehr satellites
According to a report, communication and frequency protection satellites are to be procured from OHB. There would still be no need for Starlink and Co.
The Budeswehr's own satellites are intended to ensure its independence from commercial satellite networks.
(Image: Anton Chernigovskii/Shutterstock.com)
The German Armed Forces should still not be reliant on the availability of commercial satellite networks such as Starlink from Elon Musk's SpaceX company. According to a report by the Bloomberg News agency, the Bundestag's budget committee is about to approve 2.1 billion euros for the purchase of two communication satellites and an earth satellite for frequency protection. The parliamentary committee is expected to approve the purchase in a closed session on Wednesday. The contract will be awarded to Bremen-based space technology company OHB, which specializes in satellite systems for earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and reconnaissance.
The German government recently stated that the German armed forces are not dependent on the satellite constellation for high-availability broadband Internet IRIS2 planned by the EU or on private alternatives such as Starlink. She referred to the level 2 satellite communications of the armed forces (SATCOMBw), for which the Budget Committee released around 62 million euros in May 2022. Airbus Defense and Space operates a large ground station in Weilheim for the Bundeswehr as part of this project. Like the two military-operated counterparts at the Gerolstein and Kastellaun sites, it serves as an anchor station for data transmission to and from the satellites and as an interface to the terrestrial communication networks.
OHB has already gained experience with frequency protection satellites. In 2021, for example, the company sent the relevant Earth satellite BIU GMS-T into space from New Zealand using a private Electron rocket. Such missions are about actually using the frequencies reserved for a large satellite network. To prevent network operators from reserving the channels allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) simply to prevent them from being available to competitors, the allocation expires after a certain period of time. If companies still want to hold on to the channels, they must put them into operation with the help of a backup satellite, for example.
Turning point money also for head-up displays and marine IT
According to Bloomberg, the Bundestag budget allocators will also approve the purchase of 45 head-up displays for the Tornado fighter jets worth around 40 million euros and two additional F126 frigates for around three billion euros on Wednesday. The extensive procurements are part of the modernization programme for the Bundeswehr, which the German government has been pushing ahead with since the Russian attack on Ukraine under the motto Turning Point.
Last week, the Budget Committee already approved defense investments of more than one billion euros. The Bundeswehr will receive over 1,500 trucks, torpedoes for the new maritime reconnaissance aircraft and better IT equipment for maritime operations management at the Rostock base. The main aim is to set up a maritime operations center for the naval command. This acts as an engine room for the Bundeswehr fleet worldwide.
(olb)
