France has awarded Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space the contract to develop IRIS, a military optical observation system comprising two satellites and their ground segment. The French defense procurement agency, DGA, notified the contract on November 5, 2026, and announced it on November 9. The first satellite is planned to enter service around 2033, with both in orbit by about 2035.
Airbus puts the consortium contract value at more than €1.5 billion. The work includes the spacecraft, ground control and user operations systems, and maintenance through the end of the 2030s. IRIS will succeed the current Composante Spatiale Optique, or CSO, military imaging system.
Replacing the CSO Constellation
France’s three CSO satellites were launched in 2018, 2020, and 2025. The replacement program is structured around two successive IRIS spacecraft. Thales Alenia Space says the first will take over the capability supplied by CSO-1 and CSO-2, followed by the second after the operational life of CSO-3.
The French Space Command will operate the system for the armed forces. Its products are imagery used for intelligence and military assessment. The program combines acquisition in orbit with the systems that control the spacecraft and distribute the resulting information to users.
DGA places IRIS within the updated 2024–2030 military programming framework. The agency also describes the program as open to international cooperation, extending the cooperative context of the existing MUSIS military observation system. The current arrangement includes eight European partners.
Dividing the Satellite and Ground Work
Airbus will produce both satellite platforms and a substantial part of the first satellite’s payload. It will also lead work on the ground segment. A platform supplies the spacecraft functions that support the instrument, including power, pointing, communications, and control.
Thales Alenia Space provides the second satellite’s observation payload, contribute components for the first, and participate in the ground system. The payload contains the instruments that acquire the observations. This division places spacecraft support functions and optical instrument development within a joint industrial program.
The ground segment connects orbital collection to operational use. It supports commands sent to the satellites, reception and handling of their data, and the production and dissemination of imagery. Including these functions in the contract makes IRIS a complete observation system rather than only a pair of spacecraft.
Visible and Infrared Observations
Thales Alenia Space’s description of the imaging technology includes a highly stable telescope with active optics, sensitive high-speed digital detectors, and artificial-intelligence-based image processing. The planned instruments will collect visible and infrared imagery, including observations under low-light and nighttime conditions.
Active optics adjust optical elements to maintain the intended imaging performance. Stability keeps the instrument’s geometry controlled as observations are acquired. The detector converts incoming radiation into electronic measurements, which are then processed into images.
Visible and infrared channels measure different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Their inclusion gives the observation system complementary information about the same scene. The companies describe the next-generation instruments in terms of improved image quality and faster delivery to operational users.
Airbus also identifies imaging of objects in space as an IRIS capability. The program’s stated observing tasks consequently include Earth imagery and observations directed toward space objects.
The industrial team includes suppliers working on detectors, optics, and other spacecraft technologies. Thales Alenia Space names LYNRED, PYXALIS, SODERN, REOSC, ALAT, and Thales SESO among its partners. Their contributions support the instrument chain from collecting radiation to generating and distributing image data.
The awarded development and realization work now proceeds toward the planned introduction of the first IRIS satellite around 2033. The two-spacecraft replacement sequence provides the program’s operational transition from the three CSO satellites.
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