PARIS — The European Commission has chosen a consortium led by SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat to deploy the IRIS² satellite constellation as the European Union seeks its own satellite broadband system to ensure the bloc does not rely on foreign entities such as be Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The parties will sign a 12-year concession contract by December, the Commission said in a statement on Thursday. Core subcontractors for the contract, which calls for more than 290 satellites in multiple orbits, include Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Space and Defence, Italy’s Telespazio and Thales SIX.

Militaries have jumped on the possibilities offered by SpaceX’s Starlink, the first major constellation of satellites to use low-Earth orbit to deliver broadband internet, raising concerns that reliance on a private company could disable a critical service. US Air Force is based on Starlink for command and control, while Ukraine uses the service to guide drones and for battlefield communications.

“IRIS² is an essential pillar of our resilience,” said MEP Christophe Grudler, who sits on the legislative committee for industry, in a post on X Thursday. “We need it fast.”

The EU is betting on IRIS² as a sovereign alternative to Starlink, Amazon’s Kuiper or UK-based OneWeb. Global satellite connectivity is fast becoming a strategic asset for security, safety and resilience, and the EU must urgently ensure guaranteed and unrestricted access that does not rely on a third party, according to the Commission.

According to the contract, the SpaceRISE consortium will provide government services by 2030 while also enabling commercial services. According to the Commission, IRIS² will be used for government functions, including border and maritime surveillance, secure communications for embassies and for military missions.

“This milestone represents a crucial step towards establishing a secure, resilient and autonomous communications infrastructure for Europe,” the consortium said in a joint statement, adding that full operational status is targeted for the early 2030s.

The new timetable pushes IRIS² back several years compared to the timetable presented by the EU last March, which called for first deployment as early as late 2024 and full service in 2027.

IRIS² will include satellites in low Earth orbit, or LEO, which enable low-latency wall-like connections in medium Earth orbit, which can cover a larger part of the globe. The EU relies on the system to provide broadband coverage in areas of Europe that currently have no service, as well as in the Arctic region.

The cost of the constellation is estimated at 10.6 billion euros, or $11.6 billion, the French financial newspaper Les Echos reportedwithout saying where he got the information. The concession contract will be financed from public money, as well as from private investments from the consortium.

The EU has announced 2.4 billion euros funding for IRIS² last year, including €1.65 billion until the end of 2027. Additional European funding may be granted after 2027, subject, among other things, to the European Parliament and member states adopting a successor programme, the Commission said.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck called for a postponement of IRIS² in March to rethink the programme, writing to the Commission to complain about the proposed €12bn budget and the division of work between France and Germany, Handelsblatt reported in April.

The EU already operates the Galileo satellite navigation system as well as the Copernicus Earth observation programme.