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In a shifting geopolitical landscape, secure and uninterrupted communications are vital for the sovereignty and autonomy of the European Union. In cases of crises, natural disasters, or unavailability of ground-based operators, governmental actors need access to rapidly deployable and robust satellite communications capabilities. 

The EU GOVSATCOM, aims to provide initial services within 2024, will ensure the long-term availability of reliable, secure, and cost-effective governmental satellite communications services for EU and national public authorities managing security critical missions and infrastructures. During the first implementation phase running, EU GOVSATCOM will use the capacities and services provided by existing national satcom systems and accredited private operators. Access to these existing infrastructures will be provided through one or several operational Hubs interconnecting the users and the operations centres of the different satcom suppliers in a smart and secure manner.

In 2020, the H2020-funded ENTRUSTED project was set up to provide a concrete set of governmental user requirements for the upcoming GOVSATCOM services under the leadership of the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA). With over 25 participating entities including EU Member States and agencies, the consortium's partners joined forces to also assess the currently available state-of-the-art for SatCom technologies, analyse the future trends and identify key technological gaps and opportunities, including aspects such as standardisation and interoperability. 

On March 2nd, 2023, four operational GOVSATCOM use cases were demonstrated by the ENTRUSTED consortium members during a live event at the headquarters of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in Rome, Italy. The event was met with great enthusiasm and gathered representatives of the Network of Users, current and prospective users of GOVSATCOM services, national experts and decision-makers. It was also a unique opportunity to discuss different aspects of secure satellite connectivity, share experience and draw attention to more specific user expectations. During the demo phase, attendees experienced real-time satellite connections in an operational environment.

A first scenario was showcased live, demonstrating the access to secure SATCOM services for both a land vehicle via on-the-move technology and a fixed ground terminal in an emergency theatre, pooling together space connectivity from the Italian Athena-Fidus and the Luxembourg national system. 

Use Case No. 2 by the Luxembourg Space Agency involved simulations of a natural disaster and an armed conflict and highlighted the secured capabilities of GOVSAT-1 co-owned by SES and the Luxembourg government.

Use case No. 3 by the Hellenic ministries of Digital Governance and Defence showcased a multilateral, highly secured video conference between three Greek EU Delegations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The connection was facilitated by the country’s national operator Hellas SAT, which provides governmental actors with high-throughput and robust data via a set of two geostationary satellites. The system is also used by the Greek armed forces.

Use Case No. 4 by the European Defence Agency presented a pooling and sharing service provision model. Such a model can be used in EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) military operations. Resilient EU Satcoms will provide operational capacity to deploy civilian and military missions and operations abroad.

GOVSATCOM paving the towards IRIS² 

IRIS² combines the benefits offered by Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Geostationary (GEO), and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites. This new component of the EU Space Programme will put an end to dead zones in Europe as well as the whole of Africa using the constellation's North-South orbits through a resilient and ultra-secure space and ground-based system. It may include the development and launch of up to 170 LEO satellites between 2025 and 2027.

Read this: 5 ways the new IRISS constellations benefits the EU and its citizens

The IRIS² constellation in particular shares many links with the GOVSATCOM component of the European Space Programme. While supporting governments falls in line with the traditional role of GOVSATCOM, IRIS²’s use of new technologies like cryptography, its modular architecture based on multiorbital functionalities, its commercial ambitions, and its goal to further stimulate the competitiveness of the already existing market, showcase its evolution from GOVSATCOM. 

The Union Secure Connectivity Programme (including IRIS²) infrastructure should be based upon, integrate and complement the infrastructure developed for the purposes of the of the GOVSATCOM component.

The main function of GOVSATCOM component is to link, in a secure manner, the GOVSATCOM users to the providers of GOVSATCOM capacity and services and thereby optimise the supply and demand at any given moment.

The Union Secure Connectivity Programme governmental services (including IRIS²) shall be accessible to authorized user by GOVSATCOM Hub and integrated into GOVSATCOM Service Portfolio.

The EU Agency for the Space Programme is already actively involved in building secure satellite communication infrastructure for Europe through the coordination of the first phase of GOVSATCOM on which IRIS² will be based.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the EUSPA website (http://www.euspa.europa.eu).

The OSNMA is a new, breakthrough feature of Europe’s positioning system that meets a clear user need: improve the trustworthiness of GNSS signals. This service provides an authentication mechanism to allow Open Service users to verify that the navigation data received come from Galileo and have not been modified in any way.

To acquaint interested receiver manufacturers and application developers with the Galileo OSNMA functionalities, EUSPA and the European Commission have been engaging with users through a Public Observation Test. Over the past two years, manufacturers and integrators in the GNSS industry have had the opportunity to thoroughly test Galileo's OSNMA service through the use of Signal in Space (SiS) in various scenarios tailored to their target use cases. This testing phase has also provided valuable insights and allowed for a productive exchange of views with industry experts, all while assessing the performance of the OSNMA service.

Check this out: Tests of Galileo OSNMA underway

Industry embraces Galileo OSNMA 

The Public Observation Final Workshop was welcomed with a great enthusiasm with participants praising the significant value that the service has added and the vast possibilities it is opening up.

During the test phase, the Galileo constellation performed excellently, with signal availability exceeding 90% in urban and 80% in deep urban environments, respectively. 

"Through the various consultations we had with the industry, it became evident that robustness and innovation are the main competitive advantages of the service. To date, Galileo is the only GNSS to offer such a feature’’ says Flavio Sbardellati, EUSPA Market Development Technology Officer. "A very important outcome of our interactions was that OSNMA is an ‘’easy to sell’’ service with numerous benefits across various industries.

Several leading receiver manufacturers across the EU now confirm the readiness of the OSNMA with Ublox, TeleOrbit and Fraunhofer IIS preparing to include this new Galileo feature in their platforms. System integrators such as Safran Electronics & Defence (formally Orolia) view the OSNMA as a means to reinforce their unique selling proposition while the Norwegian Metrology Service is considering it for timing and synchronisation purposes.

One of the most promising sectors is undeniably mobility with international mobility service provider Sixt highlighting the importance of OSNMA in ride-hailing and car-sharing applications.

OSNMA can provide added value to smartphone users too. Airbus Defence and Space confirms that mass market chipsets are making steady progress towards enabling the processing of OSNMA data via Android API, presenting a promising opportunity for wider adoption.

A possible solution to bring OSNMA into smartphones has been presented by Qascom, a leading company in GNSS authentication. Through assistance data, it is possible to provide improved performance, simple implementation, and a hot start in any condition.

Read this: One step closer to OSNMA: SIS ICD and Receiver Guidelines just released

OSNMA contributes to European security and resilience  

In the last year and in the current geopolitical context, an increasing number of jamming and spoofing incidents have been recorded by the GNSS community. For instance, the European Aviation Safety Agency has reported numerous events of signal outages or distortions in geographical areas surrounding the conflict zone areas. 

GNSS signal falsification or denial can have disastrous impacts on applications and market sectors that rely on precise and reliable position, navigation, and timing information. The global economy could suffer tremendous losses in case of GNSS outages caused by various attacks such as spoofing.

"Galileo is an instrumental component of the EU Space Programme and a crucial asset contributing to the autonomy and resilience of the Union as well as the safety of its citizens. Its authentication service, OSNMA, is a real differentiator to position a stronger system worldwide that we, Europeans, achieved together'', says EUSPA Chief Operating Officer, Pascal Claudel. 

OSNMA provides a first layer of authentication to GNSS with minimal impact on the receiver side and is completely free for the final users. The Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication is expected to become operational within 2023.  

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the EUSPA website (http://www.euspa.europa.eu).

The OSNMA is a new, breakthrough feature of Europe’s positioning system that meets a clear user need: improve the trustworthiness of GNSS signals. This service provides an authentication mechanism to allow Open Service users to verify that the navigation data received come from Galileo and have not been modified in any way.

To acquaint interested receiver manufacturers and application developers with the Galileo OSNMA functionalities, EUSPA and the European Commission have been engaging with users through a Public Observation Test Phase. Over the past two years, manufacturers and integrators in the GNSS industry have had the opportunity to thoroughly test Galileo's OSNMA service through the use of Signal in Space (SiS) in various scenarios tailored to their target use cases. This testing phase has also provided valuable insights and allowed for a productive exchange of views with industry experts, all while assessing the performance of the OSNMA service. The Public Observation Test Phase will continue to be active till the Service Declaration. 

Check this out: Tests of Galileo OSNMA underway

Industry embraces Galileo OSNMA 

The Public Observation Final Workshop was welcomed with a great enthusiasm with participants praising the significant value that the service has added and the vast possibilities it is opening up.

During the test phase, the Galileo constellation performed excellently, with signal availability exceeding 90% in urban and 80% in deep urban environments, respectively. 

"Through the various consultations we had with the industry, it became evident that robustness and innovation are the main competitive advantages of the service. To date, Galileo is the only GNSS to offer such a feature’’ says Flavio Sbardellati, EUSPA Market Development Technology Officer. "A very important outcome of our interactions was that OSNMA is an ‘’easy to sell’’ service with numerous benefits across various industries.

Several leading receiver manufacturers across the EU now confirm the readiness of the OSNMA with Ublox, TeleOrbit and Fraunhofer IIS preparing to include this new Galileo feature in their platforms. System integrators such as Safran Electronics & Defence (formally Orolia) view the OSNMA as a means to reinforce their unique selling proposition while the Norwegian Metrology Service is considering it for timing and synchronisation purposes.

One of the most promising sectors is undeniably mobility with international mobility service provider Sixt highlighting the importance of OSNMA in ride-hailing and car-sharing applications.

OSNMA can provide added value to smartphone users too. Airbus Defence and Space confirms that mass market chipsets are making steady progress towards enabling the processing of OSNMA data via Android API, presenting a promising opportunity for wider adoption.

A possible solution to bring OSNMA into smartphones has been presented by Qascom, a leading company in GNSS authentication. Through assistance data, it is possible to provide improved performance, simple implementation, and a hot start in any condition.

Read this: One step closer to OSNMA: SIS ICD and Receiver Guidelines just released

OSNMA contributes to European security and resilience  

In the last year and in the current geopolitical context, an increasing number of jamming and spoofing incidents have been recorded by the GNSS community. For instance, the European Aviation Safety Agency has reported numerous events of signal outages or distortions in geographical areas surrounding the conflict zone areas. 

GNSS signal falsification or denial can have disastrous impacts on applications and market sectors that rely on precise and reliable position, navigation, and timing information. The global economy could suffer tremendous losses in case of GNSS outages caused by various attacks such as spoofing.

"Galileo is an instrumental component of the EU Space Programme and a crucial asset contributing to the autonomy and resilience of the Union as well as the safety of its citizens. Its authentication service, OSNMA, is a real differentiator to position a stronger system worldwide that we, Europeans, achieved together'', says EUSPA Chief Operating Officer, Pascal Claudel. 

OSNMA provides a first layer of authentication to GNSS with minimal impact on the receiver side and is completely free for the final users. The Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication is expected to become operational within 2023.  

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the EUSPA website (http://www.euspa.europa.eu).

Pesticides and fertilisers can be important tools in modern farming. When used correctly, fertilisers provide essential nutrients for crop growth, while pesticides can help protect those crops from harmful pests and diseases. 

The problem is that agriculture has become too dependent on both. Instead of being applied when and where they’re needed, it’s become standard practice to blanket an entire field with fertilisers and pesticides. In fact, it is estimated that farmers worldwide use 5.6 billion pounds of pesticides every year – an overapplication that has wreaked havoc on the environment. 

Not only does the unmanaged use of pesticides and fertilisers contaminate soil and water, it threatens biodiversity, food security and even human health. “It’s time to change course on how we use pesticides in the EU,” says Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. “We need to reduce the use of chemical pesticides to protect our soils, air, food and, ultimately, the health of our citizens.”

This is why, as part of its Green Deal initiative, the European Commission has proposed to cut the use of pesticides in half by 2030. Today’s farmers are being asked to increase productivity and reduce the environmental impact of their activities, both without compromising on quality,” says EUSPA Executive Director Rodrigo da Costa. “With EU Space technologies, they can achieve these challenges.”

Enabling the variable rate application of pesticides  

For SatAgro, striking this balance between productivity and sustainability starts with Copernicus, Europe’s Earth Observation programme. The Polish company offers a far-ranging, automated web-based service for precision agriculture supported by satellite observations. 

“SatAgro’s mission is to provide up-to-date information on crop conditions and its variability in space and time so users can optimise their decision making, implement precision and regenerative farming techniques, and become more profitable in the process,” says SatAgro Founder and Chief Development Officer Przemysław Żelazowski. 

To do this, the company uses Copernicus Sentinel data to measure soil quality, distinguish between crop types, and monitor the health and maturity of their yields, amongst other uses. Access to such data can help farmers increase yields and productivity while also reducing their environmental impact. 

Farmers benefit in multiple ways from the use of Copernicus data. For example, by being able to ‘see’ which crops would benefit most from the use of pesticides, they can apply pesticides to just those crops – resulting in significant costs savings and potential increases in yields.

In agriculture, this is called variable rate application. Instead of the uniform application of chemicals across entire fields, with variable rate application, farmers can apply appropriate amounts of fertilisers and pesticides at a precise time and/or location. 

This is where another component of the EU Space Programme comes into play: European GNSS (EGNSS). Whereas Earth Observation shows you where pesticides and fertilisers are needed, the precise positioning provided by Galileo and EGNOS guides your machinery to that exact location. 

“The electronic dosage instructions for fertilisers and other agrochemicals compiled by the SatAgro solution are compatible with most of the major EGNSS-enabled precision spreaders and sprayers on the market,” adds Żelazowski.

When less is more

Put Earth Observation and EGNSS together and what you get is a very powerful solution for the variable rate application of fertilisers and pesticides. Copernicus provides differentiated mapping of crops and EGNSS the highly accurate positioning of machinery. Together, they allow farmers to precisely apply fertilisers and pesticides only when and where they are needed most. 

Learn more: EU Space for smart farming and sustainable agriculture

But the benefits of EU Space technologies aren’t limited to the sustainable use of fertilisers and pesticides. This same technology can be used to reduce the fuel used by farm equipment, install smart irrigation systems, implement best practices in time management, increase productivity, mitigate the impact of climate change, and optimise yields – all with minimal investments by the farmer. 

“Leveraging the synergies created by the tandem use of Earth Observation and EGNSS, a new frontier for agriculture will soon be a reality,” concludes da Costa. “Smart data will enable ‘a less is more’ approach – with less fuel, water and chemicals, agriculture will evolve into a more efficient, profitable and sustainable sector.”

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the EUSPA website (http://www.euspa.europa.eu).