Eutelsat CEO Jean-François Fallacher confirmed the agreement alongside the company’s full-year results this week, calling it the point at which the programme’s build phase formally begins. The expanded constellation will run to 348 satellites: 330 in low Earth orbit from Eutelsat, 18 in medium Earth orbit from SES. 66 of the LEO satellites are earmarked specifically for defence, security and emergency services, with launch planned from 2029.

Separately, Eutelsat is extending its existing OneWeb network through 2034 with 229 additional satellites on top of the 440 already procured, a roughly €1 billion investment. The new satellites combine an inclined orbital design, beamforming antennas and 5G NTN, directing capacity dynamically to wherever demand is highest. Fallacher named the programme’s target directly: Starlink and Amazon’s Leo.

IRIS² is the sovereignty argument that Europe has been making about cloud and chips, applied to orbit. Satellites are harder to substitute than software. Once a constellation is built and contracted, switching providers isn’t a procurement decision, it’s a multi-year rebuild.

The urgency has a specific source. Ukraine’s reliance on Starlink for frontline connectivity showed what it costs to depend on a foreign commercial operator for infrastructure this critical. Luke Pearce, principal analyst at CCS Insight, said the EU does not want to be reliant on US partners for this capability.

The stakes are less about market share than about whether Europe controls its own communications during a crisis. Starlink already operates thousands of satellites with years of live operational data behind it, a lead IRIS² has no way to close quickly. Europe’s bet is that governments and militaries will pay for sovereignty over raw scale.

Judging by its approach to sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure, that bet is consistent with the wider strategy, even where it comes at a higher cost. For Capacity’s readers, this sits at the intersection of two things we track closely: how satellite connectivity is moving from niche to telco mainstream, and the broader push toward European infrastructure sovereignty across cloud, AI and now orbit. RELATED STORIES State of the Sector: Satellite Eutelsat orders 340 new OneWeb satellites in major Airbus deal Capacity Europe 2026 13 October 2026 The 24th anniversary edition of Capacity Europe 2025 will bring together 3,500+ decision-makers from the global connectivity and digital infrastructure community.

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