BERLIN and WASHINGTON — German defense behemoth Rheinmetall and Finnish satellite operator ICEYE announced today they have officially established a new joint venture to provide space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data to the burgeoning European market.
Called Rheinmetall ICEYE Space Solutions, GmbH and headquartered in Neuss, Germany, the venture also includes German space startups Reflex Aerospace, OroraTech, ConstellR and LiveEO as “initial partners,” the press release says ― suggesting that the group would be amenable to adding other interested companies.
“The approach deliberately follows an open architecture. The objective is not to create isolated entities, but to build an open, resilient, expandable and long-term sovereign ISR platform. The partnership lays the foundation for scalable, long-term security and defence capabilities in Germany and Europe,” the joint press release explains.
Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger told reporters at the ILA Berlin Air Show that while the joint venture will welcome European partners, whether US firms would be embraced is less clear.
“I think it’s open for a lot of Europeans,” he said. “It is also open for US technologies, if the US is not, let me say, killing us in different areas [by saying]: ‘we cannot give this technology to Europe, or we give it but not… tomorrow’.”
