HawkEye's US advantage
US pioneer HawkEye360, which sent its first trio of satellites into space in 2018, struck a deal with Spaceflight Industries in October to launch its micro-satellites. HawkEye is trying to accelerate their deployment through traditional investment rounds, supported by a mature U.S. financial sector in this segment. The company is led by Chris DeMay, who previously worked at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the US space intelligence service, and is backed by several US funds with experience in the sector, including Razor's Edge Ventures (IOL 815), a venture capital firm close to the US intelligence community, as well as Raytheon and Airbus Defence & Space.While HawkEye has an edge in terms of industrial partnerships and product marketing, the company is hoping to obtain more support from US government partners. HawkEye's advisors include numerous former high-level officials from the US intelligence community, such as Letitia Long, former director of the NGA, Arthur Money, former assistant secretary of defence for command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I), Doug Wolfe, former chief information officer at the CIA and ex-NGA chief Robert Cardillo (IOL 834). Many of these held positions under Barack Obama and may hope to return to the corridors of power when Joe Biden takes office.
HawkEye is extending well beyond the US market. The company won a €1.5m contract last year to provide dataset of geolocalized satellite RF emitter detection to the EU border protection agency Frontex. In announcing the deal, Frontex called HawkEye the only company that was "capable of delivering the desired services" and added that two of its European competitors were not yet mature. "Two other companies which are in the same market (Unseenlabs, Kleos Space) are still in the initial stage of ramping up satellite deployment", the agency said.
Unseenlabs deploy a French model for its run to a SIGINT constellation
France's Unseenlabs is playing catch-up in the field. The Rennes-based startup added two nanosatellites to its fledgling SIGINT constellation on 20 November and aims to have around 20 in orbit by 2025. Founded in 2015 by Jonathan Galic and Clément Galic, Unseenlabs has already had one satellite in operation for the past year. The company is eyeing contracts with government agencies but has not ruled out partnerships with the shipping industry.The company has a traditional French financial model, with backing from Definvest, the armed forces ministry's investment arm, and in May joined the Groupement des industries de Construction et Activités Navales (GICAN), an alliance of naval industries players supported by the government. This should put it in a good position to profit from subsidies under the French government's package of measures to relaunch the economy, which has a substantial envelope for French New Space. A development project presented under this plan chimes strongly with the company's capacities: a demonstration in orbit of spectrum surveillance capacity from a nanosatellite (NESS).
Unseenlabs doesn't limit itself to France. The company has partnered with New Zealand's Rocket Lab, which works regularly for the NRO, for its nanosatellite launches. In a rush, the company is trying to find operators with available payload room, because the European launcher Vega has limited experience in the launch of grouped nanosatellites. Unseenlabs also has a partnership with Norway's Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) for Earth-based communication with the satellite constellation.
European player Kleos Space teams with Australian and Indian partners
Another Europe player, Kleos Space, is expanding its presence across several continents. Based in Luxembourg with branches in the US and the United Kingdom, Kleos raised €11.7m in a funding round earlier this month managed by the Australian investment firms Bell Potter Securities and Evolution Capital Advisors. Kleos also launched its first satellites from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 7 November.Headed by Andy Bowyer, a Brit, Kleos is focusing on interception data in zones that are highly strategic to its investors and early clients, particularly in the South China Sea, the Japan Sea, the Strait of Hormuz and the Australian coast.
Majority-owned by its British parent company Magna Parva, which was co-founded by Bowyer and Miles Ashcroft, Kleos is now targeting the Middle East market in addition to Australian funding. The firm obtained a €3.4m loan from the Dubai-based private equity firm Winance in February as it faced launch delays. Kleos also tapped Sean McKay, a retired US Air Force (USAF) colonel with experience in US intelligence and in Saudi Arabia, in March to head operations in the region. The company is also exploring partnerships with South American governments, according to our sources.
Kleos is seeking to sign further deals in continental Europe, where there are more contracts in the offing, as the UK continues to negotiate its exit from the European Union. The company has a 2017 partnership with Luxembourg's government to build a constellation of observation (GEOINT) satellites and received a €1m grant from the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) last year.
Kleos is already edging its way into Hawkeye's turf. In the US, the company participated in the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Space Vehicle Directorate's Catalyst Space Accelerator program and is preparing to present its technology to the NGA, announced well before the agency published its request for information. In May, Kleos landed a contract to supply data for the Micro-Satellite Military Utility Project (MSMU), another AFRL project. The USAF's partners on the project include the defense ministries from Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and the UK.
Reining in ambitions
Clients are hoping that the three operators will not seek to remove existing imagery and radar captors entirely and replace them with their own solutions, as has happened in the past. Most governments prefer integrating RF interception data into broader GEOINT data architecture.© Copyright Intelligence Online.
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