OHB SE Wins €1 Billion Contract for EU IRIS² Satellites

German aerospace manufacturers OHB SE has secured a contract valued at nearly €1 billion ($1.17 billion) to develop and produce 18 medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite platforms for the European Union’s IRIS² secure connectivity program.

Announced in a company press release on August 31, 2026, the agreement with satellite operator SES marks the first major manufacturing contract awarded under the IRIS² concession. The constellation represents the European Union’s third flagship space initiative, following Galileo and Copernicus, and aims to establish a sovereign, multi-orbit communications network for European governments and commercial users.

Technical specifications and production

The contract tasks OHB with delivering the MEO segment of the broader IRIS² architecture. Each of the 18 satellite platforms will feature a launch mass of 2.6 metric tons and a maximum power output of 15 kilowatts.

These 18 MEO platforms will form a critical layer of the planned 348-satellite constellation, which will operate across both low Earth orbit (LEO) and MEO to provide global coverage with reduced signal latency.

OHB SE Chief Executive Officer Marco Fuchs highlighted the strategic nature of the contract for the company and the continent.

“IRIS² will mark another significant step toward Europe’s independence. In an increasingly digital and highly mobile world, a resilient and autonomous communication infrastructure is indispensable. With Galileo and Copernicus, OHB has already helped shape two of Europe’s most important satellite programs. We are especially pleased to have been entrusted with the development of eighteen satellite platforms for IRIS², further expanding our role in Europe‘s strategic space infrastructure.”

The SpaceRISE consortium and program timeline

The European Commission selected the SpaceRISE consortium to develop and deploy the IRIS² infrastructure. The consortium includes major European satellite operators SES, EUTELSAT, and HISPASAT. Within this group, SES is leading the delivery of the MEO segment, which led to the direct contract with OHB.

The manufacturing award follows the official launch of the IRIS² implementation phase on August 6, 2026. The following day, the European Commission, the European Space-Agencies (ESA), and the SpaceRISE consortium signed an implementation agreement. That August 7, 2026 signing concluded seven months of negotiations regarding the multi-orbit network’s architecture and associated costs.

According to the current program schedule, the first IRIS² satellites are slated to launch in 2029. Initial connectivity services are expected to become available to government users in 2030.

AirPro News analysis

The nearly €1 billion award to OHB cements the industrial foundation for IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite). By utilizing a multi-orbit architecture, European planners are attempting to balance the low-latency benefits of LEO constellations with the broader coverage and established reliability of MEO platforms. We view this contract as a critical indicator that the European Union is moving aggressively from the planning phase to hardware production, prioritizing domestic aerospace contractors to ensure the resulting network remains entirely sovereign and independent of foreign commercial providers.

Sources: OHB SE