NATO allies in Europe want more commercial satellite imagery to spot threats earlier, CEO says

NATO is showing growing interest in commercial satellite imagery. 2026 Planet Labs PBC/via REUTERS NATO countries in Europe are increasingly interested in access to commercial satellite imagery. An industry executive said that countries see how Ukraine has successfully used this technology. They are also looking to build up their own capabilities as the US signals a shift away from Europe. Demand for commercial satellite imagery is rising across NATO as the alliance seeks greater access to expand its early-warning capabilities, a top industry executive told Business Insider. US satellite imaging company Planet Labs had roughly $4 billion in deals for satellite services in the pipeline as of its early September earnings call, CEO Will Marshall said in an interview last week. Around $1 billion of those are expected to come together in the coming quarters. Surging global interest in satellite imagery is at least partly driven by observations from ongoing conflicts, Marshall said. Commercial satellite imagery, for instance, has been a major advantage for Ukraine on the battlefield. NATO countries in Europe are also looking to strengthen their own intelligence-gathering capabilities as the US signals to European allies that they need to be more responsible for their own collective security. "Europe needs its own eyes, and it needs them fast," Marshall said. An information advantage Space has become an essential domain for military operations, as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated, with access to commercial satellite imagery providing critical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. The US and its allies use satellites to monitor adversarial behavior. US Space Force photo From Planet's fleet of Earth-imaging satellites in orbit, customers receive what Marshall described as "strategic early warning" — they can track developments such as the expansion of military sites or defense industry facilities and map patterns of life to understand potentially abnormal behavior. "Space is one of those areas of new technology, along with drones and AI, that have proved themselves to be really significant for Ukraine," Marshall said. Specifically, satellite access provides Kyiv with an "information advantage" that, like the other emerging technologies, compensates for its smaller conventional fighting force. Much more is said about the role that satellite-based internet, such as SpaceX's Starlink, plays in Ukraine; less publicized is the support imaging companies provide. Marshall said Planet's services, for instance, have enabled Kyiv to conduct "critical missions" that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Ukraine uses satellite imagery to track Russian troop movements and gather information for battle damage assessments, among other tasks. Western countries have become increasingly aware of Ukraine's successes in this area, and there is a growing demand for satellite services, Marshall said. He added that Planet has dozens of partnership opportunities, mostly in Europe. "The world has woken up to what Ukraine has benefited from," he said. Europe needs to 'move fast' European interest in satellite access comes amid a broader push by the continent's NATO allies to take greater responsibility for their collective defense as the US signals its unwillingness to do so. A satellite image showing a damaged facility in Russia following a Ukrainian drone attack. 2026 Planet Labs PBC/via REUTERS "Europe was primarily relying on the US to provide its intelligence," Marshall said. Now, he said, the continent is saying, "I need my own eyes on what's going on. I need my own ability to see threats." Marshall pointed to Sweden, a NATO ally that signed a major contract with Planet earlier this year to control a suite of satellites, allowing it to operate its own systems over a dedicated area of interest rather than compete with other countries for data and analytics services. Stockholm accelerated its space-based intelligence and surveillance plan by years to get its first satellite in orbit by leveraging new commercial capabilities, as Ukraine did, Marshall said. "We need to think differently than our traditional aerospace approaches or defense processes generally, and move fast." Reflecting rising demand, Planet on Tuesday announced the opening of a manufacturing facility in Berlin — the company's first outside San Francisco — to build its high-resolution Pelican satellites to supplement the fleet. The first satellite is scheduled to be finished before the end of 2026, and the facility will eventually make dozens each year. The opening of Planet's new facility comes as NATO leadership and European officials have called for increased defense spending and a larger build-up of the continent's industrial capabilities. Italian Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the NATO military committee chair, told reporters in Copenhagen on Saturday that the alliance has several key priorities, one of which is defense manufacturing. "Allies are ready to buy at scale. Investment is rising, demand is clear, and industry must be able to deliver," he said at the annual military committee conference. Dragone's remarks fall amid fresh warnings from NATO and European officials that Russia could escalate its hybrid campaign against the continent amid a string of recent airspace incursions and other sabotage activity. Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in such activities. Read the original article on Business Insider

Read it at Business Insider ↗

← Front page