WARSAW, Poland — In a bid to secure an Earth observation system for the country’s armed forces, Poland is advancing a project to have its first three military satellites launched this month.
Developed by a consortium of Finnish manufacturer ICEYE and Wojskowe Zakłady Łączności No 1, an offshoot of Poland’s state-run defense group PGZ, the national satellite reconnaissance system will be the first component of the military space capabilities Warsaw aims to field in the coming years, defense officials said.
The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite is to be deployed into low Earth orbit onboard the next Transporter-15 mission by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California was initially scheduled for Nov. 11 in what would mark Poland’s Independence Day. The deployment has been postponed and is currently scheduled for Nov. 19.
The initiative is part of Poland’s efforts to ramp up its military reconnaissance capacities amid an ongoing Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
“We are developing today a very important capacity for the Polish military, a capacity that the military has not had to date,” Polish Deputy National Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said during a Nov. 13 event devoted to the project in Warsaw. “We are developing the capacities of targeting, and … we are joining a group of countries that have such capacities.”
Under the contract the Polish Ministry of National Defence signed with the manufacturer consortium last May, the country’s military is to receive at least three satellites under the MikroSAR program, with an option to acquire a further three spacecraft. The initial deal is worth around PLN 860 million ($237 million).
In his remarks, Tomczyk said the war in Ukraine has sparked a major push for Poland to accelerate its military space program.
“When [Ukraine’s] President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Finland, we held meetings with a very narrow group of persons, among others with the CEO of ICEYE who is with us here today. This shows the importance of not only the company, but also the capacities related to satellite reconnaissance,” according to the deputy minister.
Rafał Modrzewski, the CEO and co-founder of ICEYE, said at the event that, with the first SAR satellite’s forthcoming deployment, the Polish military “will have access to its own reconnaissance system that will allow to capture any images it desires with a resolution of 25 centimeters”.
The Finnish company’s partnership with PGZ, the dominant player in Poland’s defense sector, marks another collaboration between ICEYE and a major European industry player.
In May 2025, the company teamed up with Germany’s Rheinmetall, setting up a joint venture devoted to satellite manufacturing with an initial focus on SAR satellites. The new entity, named Rheinmetall ICEYE Space Solutions, is jointly owned by Rheinmetall, which holds 60% of the shares, and ICEYE, which owns the remaining 40% stake.
With Poland’s military satellite projects moving forward, last year, the country created a new military institution, the Geospatial Intelligence and Satellite Services Agency. The organization will be responsible for processing the data collected by the military satellite fleet and providing related services to the armed forces.
“From a military user’s point of view, what is most important here is the services that a user receives from space, such as satellite navigation, satellite imaging of Earth’s surface, satellite radio reconnaissance, and satellite communications,” Col. Leszek Paszkowski, the agency’s head, said at the event.
The military official stated that, according to Poland’s defense strategy, the designed satellite fleet will serve as the “eyes” guiding the country’s military in how it strikes enemy forces.
“It is worth emphasizing that satellite technologies are the only ones that enable so-called deep, precise strikes that, in our doctrine, are the main element of the deterrence policy directed against the potential opponent,” he said.
In the meantime, the Polish military is awaiting the deployment of two observation satellites the government ordered from French company Airbus in December 2022.
The spacecraft are to be launched into space by 2027. Under the operational plan, the spy satellites are to increase the capacities of Poland’s armed forces in the field of reconnaissance data, operating as part of a French-Polish constellation. The net value of the contract is about €575 million ($669 million), according to data from the ministry.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
