New European Budgets for Space Defence – What to prepare for

On 10 September 2026, the International Space Summit in Paris signalled a decisive shift: Europe now treats space as critical defence infrastructure and is backing that position with substantial funding.

President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner Andrius Kubilius announced a proposed EUR 131 billion combined defence, security and space envelope for 2028–2034, described in public materials as five times current EU-level funding, alongside an accelerated IRIS² constellation and a European Space Shield.

For clients in aerospace, defence and space, that change has immediate practical consequences. Secure connectivity, resilient positioning, navigation and timing, Earth observation, space protection and launch autonomy are moving to the centre of European procurement.

1 What happened in Paris

In her keynote, President von der Leyen said that space is “increasingly central to security.” She pointed to Russia's war against Ukraine as evidence that events in orbit shape the battlefield on the ground. The global space economy is expected to almost triple by 2035, from approximately USD 630 billion today to around USD 1.8 trillion. Europe, she said, must “act together, invest at scale, and turn its market into a competitive advantage.”

Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said that “It is impossible to defend Europe without space.” He identified radiofrequency interference, jamming and spoofing, suspicious proximity operations, anti-satellite weapons, missiles, robots and lasers as threats to European and national assets. He also thanked the French and German governments for putting “space for defence and defence of space” on the same agenda.

2 Budget and Funding Vehicles

The European Commission's proposed 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework, published on 16 July 2025, would allocate approximately EUR 131 billion through the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) to “defence, security and space”. 

No official sub-split between defence and space has been published, and the proposal does not identify a clear space-only allocation. However, the Commissioner called for attribution of 50% of this to Space assets and did call for a substantial, approximately fivefold increase in space spending.

By comparison, the current EU Space Programme for 2021–2027 totals EUR 14.88 billion at current prices, comprising EUR 9.02 billion for Galileo/EGNOS, EUR 5.42 billion for Copernicus and EUR 0.44 billion for Space Situational Awareness and GOVSATCOM. 

Other disclosed vehicles and commitments reinforce the picture. IRIS² currently has EUR 2.4 billion in EU budget support, while the Cassini Investment Facility is expected to mobilise EUR 2 billion in risk capital for European space companies. The Scaleup Europe Fund would make EUR 5 billion available for strategic technologies, including space.

3 What Europe is buying

IRIS² is being accelerated to more than 350 satellites, with first launches from 2029, backed by EUR 2.4 billion in EU budget support and additional Member State commitments. 

Its secure-communications mission, together with GOVSATCOM and planned Ukrainian participation, would support a more pooled and interoperable capability across Member States. 

The wider priorities emerge from disclosed programme budgets, announced scale and repeated strategic emphasis: 

• Galileo/EGNOS accounts for EUR 9.02 billion of the current EU Space Programme, making resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) the largest disclosed capability area. 
• The emphasis on encrypted Galileo services and a new LEO component indicates continued investment in resilient PNT and Galileo PRS integration. 
• Earth observation is also prominent. Copernicus represents EUR 5.42 billion, while the planned Earth Observation Governmental Service would provide near-real-time, all-weather, day-and-night geo-intelligence for Member States.
• To counter interference and other threats in orbit, the Commission plans stronger SST and radiofrequency-interference alerts. 
• The European Space Shield would connect the EU, Member States, NATO, and civilian, military, public and private actors through an integrated governance and protection architecture, with proposed capabilities including space-based early warning, anti-jamming and anti-spoofing resilience, and satellite protection. 

Ariane 6, Vega-C and Germany's emerging commercial launch sector provide the current base for launch autonomy and space transportation. The summit's emphasis on sovereign access to orbit supports continued investment in launch infrastructure, vehicles and related services. In practice, in-space services and operations, cyber and electronic-warfare interfaces, protected ground infrastructure and military mobility sit alongside these priorities.

4 Implications for industry / What to expect

From 2028 onwards, the ECF's approximately EUR 131 billion defence, security and space window will sit alongside SAFE, which totals EUR 150 billion and is fully subscribed by 19 Member States, and a proposed tenfold increase in military mobility to EUR 17.65 billion. Together with the Cassini and Scaleup Europe facilities, the package is likely to push procurement towards more centralised and interoperable models, with practical consequences for tender design, consortium structures and supply-chain requirements across Europe.

From 2028, the ECF would consolidate 14 existing programmes, including the European Defence Fund, the European Space Programme, IRIS², Digital Europe and InvestEU, and would deploy grants, loans, equity, quasi-equity, blending, procurement and guarantees, including support for SMEs.

In practice, procurement will favour pan-European consortia, mandatory interoperability with EU systems such as IRIS² and structured participation by SMEs.

Large institutional tenders will be contested by Tier 1 primes and launch providers, including Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space, OHB and ISAR Aerospace.

Tier 2 suppliers and deep-tech firms, by contrast, can enter through subcontracting routes designed to channel defined contract value to SMEs and new entrants.

Near-term demand is likely to centre on secure satellite connectivity, encrypted PNT receivers and Galileo PRS integration into military command-and-control, as well as next-generation SAR and multispectral Earth-observation payloads. It will also extend to AI-driven orbital-tracking and SSA platforms, optical laser cross-links, cyber-resilient ground infrastructure and radiation-hardened semiconductors.

For German market participants, practical priorities are to align technology stacks with common EU architectures, audit export-control and dual-use compliance, and assess cross-border partnerships, M&A and procurement readiness. This includes alliances combining manufacturing capacity with software, cyber-security and start-up ecosystems.

For companies, the practical response is to prepare now. 

• The 12-year IRIS² concession with the SpaceRISE consortium (SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat) is in implementation, and its industrial team includes Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space, OHB, Aerospacelab and others. The subcontracting chain is intended to channel defined contract value to SMEs and new entrants. 
• EDF and EDIP calls, SAFE joint procurement, Horizon Europe's EUR 175 billion budget and the EIC open routes into procurement and financing. 
• The EUR 2 billion Cassini facility and the EUR 5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund add further financing options. 
• EDF's 2026 work programme commits EUR 1 billion across 10 calls covering 31 topics, including a dedicated EUR 50 million Galileo PRS topic. The 2027 cycle is expected to be the last under the current MFF before the ECF takes over in 2028. 

How HEUKING can assist

• EU and German Space Policies
• EU and German public procurement – Procurement strategy, tender procedures, consortia and SME-friendly routes.
• EU funding access – EDF, ECF, IRIS², Horizon Europe/EIC, SAFE, InvestEU and cohesion instruments.
• Consortia, JVs and industrial cooperation – Teaming, IP, data-sharing and modular-architecture arrangements.
• Foreign investment control and security approvals – FDI screening, reliability checks, clearances and classified programmes.
• Export controls and sanctions – EU dual-use, German export law, allied regimes and cross-border compliance.
• Space and dual-use commercialisation – IRIS², Galileo PRS-adjacent uses, Earth-observation data, licensing and spectrum.