France's EUR 1.5 billion IRIS spy satellite contract goes to Airbus and Thales to replace CSO
France's defence procurement agency, the DGA, has named Airbus Defence and Space the prime contractor and Thales Alenia Space the co-contractor for IRIS, the country's next-generation military earth-observation system, in a programme worth more than EUR 1.5 billion (about $1.7 billion). The announcement, which Airbus released on November 9 and trade press carried on November 11, hands the two European makers the lead on a constellation that will eventually replace the three CSO optical spy satellites now in orbit. The award is the largest new European military-space contract of the quarter and a direct read on who keeps the continent's sovereign imaging capability in house.
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