EU seeks satellite offers in AI race, introducing competition for Elon Musk’s Starlink and Jeff Bezos’ Kuiper.
Europe is currently inviting last bids for a 6 billion euro ($6.55 billion) European Union satellite network, aimed at rivaling Elon Musk’s Starlink and Jeff Bezos’ Kuiper.
However, officials have been warned that the IRIS² system launched by the European Commission could miss out on the latest wave of artificial intelligence and become obsolete before it is even launched due to red tape.
The European Space Agency announced Friday that it is seeking final bids to develop a secure communications system, a flagship project spurred in part by the role of Musk’s Starlink as Ukraine’s backbone in its war with Russia.
So far, the only known bidder for the main IRIS² contract is a consortium of Airbus, Thales Alenia Space, Eutelsat, Hispasat and SES.
An array of up to 170 satellites will secure communications for European Union governments and open up new commercial broadband services to underserved areas between 2025 and 2027.
“Right now, IRIS² is in danger of becoming obsolete before it even launches,” former French Air Force chief Denis Mercier and former Airbus executive Marc Fontaine wrote in a sponsored opinion piece for Politico last week.
Both are involved in a German defense artificial intelligence startup company in Helsinki, which specializes in providing internal artificial intelligence software, Mercier owns and Fontaine operates in France.
When IRIS² was launched, artificial intelligence was a “somewhat futuristic technology,” they wrote. “However, in the last two or three years, the world has learned that artificial intelligence has matured and is ready to be used practically everywhere.”
The European Commission said it has already taken action on the matter.
“Incorporating artificial intelligence capabilities into the algorithms running the IRIS² system is a very promising avenue that is currently under consideration,” the spokesperson said.
Technology analysts say users such as intelligence agencies will use advanced computing widely on the ground to sift through and analyze vast amounts of raw data from space or elsewhere.
But putting AI to work directly inside satellites — known as edge computing — can help them reduce data overload for analysts, or adapt to so-called intelligent jamming.
“We have to assume that competitive countries like China have designed this key capability into their constellations – Europe’s IRIS² cannot launch without it,” the paper said.
DEFTECH
Helsing is among a small but growing number of “deftech” companies trying to disrupt the information security market in the same way that new players have done in space, and there is business to be had.
The EU has promised that 30 percent of the EU-funded part of IRIS², which is worth 2.4 billion euros, will be cultivated for small businesses.
However, the comments have reignited the debate over whether traditional procurement is nimble enough to embrace the new business models coming to space and now defense.
In traditional programs, the winning bidder controls the flow of instructions to suppliers, often with long delivery times.
Entrepreneurs say that combining defense with software and artificial intelligence requires faster legwork to build in flexibility.
The growing focus on information technology in defense was highlighted on Friday, when Airbus was reported to be in talks to buy Atos’ cybersecurity assets.
The Airbus-led consortium declined to comment directly on the Helsinki article, but said IRIS² aims to “leverage the latest technology and corporate expertise across Europe”.
ESA said that once the main IRIS2 contract is awarded, the work would gradually shift to smaller companies.
“This will take some time … and will take place throughout 2024,” ESA’s director of navigation Francisco-Javier Benedicto Ruiz said. (1 dollar = 0.9163 euros)
