Airbus Sells Two Spy Satellites To Poland

The Polish Defense Ministry has signed a contract with the French company Airbus to buy two observation satellites.

The deal is part of Poland’s plan to improve its military surveillance after Russia invaded its neighbour Ukraine.

The contract was signed on December 27 in Warsaw by the Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Baszczak and the French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

A Polish ministry spokeswoman told Defense News that the deal is worth about €575 million ($612 million) in total.

“The Polish satellites will be sent into space until 2027,” the spokesperson said. “The Polish Armed Forces will be able to use the resources of the existing Pléiades Neo [Earth observation] satellite constellation as early as 2023.”

The two satellites and a receiving station will be sent to Warsaw.

In a statement, the ministry said, “The satellites will increase the Polish military’s ability to get reconnaissance data from observation satellites that are part of the French-Polish constellation.” “Because of them, Poland will be able to get reconnaissance data in the field of image reconnaissance with an accuracy of up to 30 cm, and operations within the constellation will make it possible to take pictures of a much larger area of the Earth than is possible for a single country.”

Baszczak said that he and his French counterpart also talked about ways to work together on defence that could help Ukraine fight against Russia. Lecornu will go to Kyiv on Dec. 28 for an official meeting with the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov.