Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, working with Germany’s Munich-based defence specialist Helsing, has agreed to build a constellation of satellites for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles to be deployed in 2029. Kongsberg’s majority investor is the Norwegian government.

Kongsberg is an internationally known specialist producer of defence and space-related systems, and has an investment in embryonic satellite launcher SpinLaunch (see below). Its NanoAvionics division is already contracted to produce 280 nano-satellites in a €122 million contract.

The agreement sees Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg as the launch contractors.

Kongsberg and Helsing said their constellation will include Synthetic Aperture radar (SAR), high-resolution optical and radio-frequency surveillance capacity. “Helsing has proven on-board AI algorithms deployed in orbit for data analysis,” the two companies said in their Dec. 10 statement.

Helsing Co-CEO Gundbert Scherf said the war in Ukraine “demonstrates that most reliable targeting begins in space. “Space-based ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] is the most reliable, all-weather source for persistent intelligence, as we have demonstrated with our satellite data analysis algorithms already being used in Ukraine. With Kongsberg, we will provide crucial integrated space defense systems to ensure Europe wins the fight for sovereignty.”

SpinLaunch hired industry veteran Massimiliano Ladovaz on board as CEO over the summer. The former CTO of OneWeb, Ladovaz led deployment of the constellation and then served as COO of Eutelsat/OneWeb Group, and has previous experience with SES and Inmarsat. SpinLaunch is working with Kongsberg NanoAvionics on the constellation and recently announced that it completed a design review for the first customer link satellite, set to fly in October 2026.

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