Government Demand II: Defence Beyond the United States
Which governments outside the US are buying Earth observation in 2026, and why are they buying satellites rather than images?
Chapter summary
European and Asian defence ministries are now the growth market.
Key takeaways
- 1
Germany awarded a constellation worth about €1.7 billion to a Rheinmetall–ICEYE joint venture (the SPOCK programme, production from the third quarter of 2026); Sweden contracted roughly ten ICEYE satellites; Poland received a €200 million MikroSAR system; Japan bought satellite capacity from Planet; India, Gulf states and others have signed sovereign deals with BlackSky and others.
- 2
The pattern is the same everywhere: governments want imagery they control in a crisis, so they buy whole satellites, reserved capacity or a joint venture with local production, not single images.
- 3
The March 2025 suspension of Ukraine's access to US-licensed imagery (Chapter 36) made that argument for them.
Key figures in this chapter
- ~€1.7B
- Germany SAR constellation (Rheinmetall–ICEYE)
- ~10
- satellites for Sweden (~$142M)
- ~€200M
- Poland MikroSAR
- +200%
- BlackSky international revenue, Q2 2026
Source: Company announcements as reported
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US Civil Government Demand: NASA, NOAA, USDA, FEMA and Others
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