PARIS — The Peruvian Defense Ministry on April 24 agreed to purchase, for 150 million euros ($200 million) a high-resolution optical reconnaissance satellite from Airbus Defence and Space following a bilateral agreement with the French government, the French Defense Ministry announced.
The agreement calls for the satellite to be launched in 2016 and for France to provide, in addition to the satellite, the ground network, a data-processing center and training to Peruvian Defense Ministry technicians in satellite operation and image analysis.
Airbus officials had said in late 2013 that 2014 could be the breakout year for high-resolution satellite sales. A two-satellite agreement with the United Arab Emirates is about to be concluded after several differences with the U.S. government on U.S. technologies inside the satellites apparently were settled.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian traveled to the United Arab Emirates the week of April 24 to assure that the contract, called Falcon Eye, remained on track despite a missed deadline by Airbus and partner Thales Alenia Space in securing U.S. export approval.
Morocco has agreed to purchase a similar pair of spacecraft in a contract that has not been announced formally.
Now comes Peru with the purchase of a satellite likely to have a performance, as will the Falcon Eye and Moroccan satellites, similar to that of France’s Pleiades spacecraft, used for military and civil-commercial purposes. The Pleiades satellites have a resolution as low as 70 centimeters after image resampling.
“The project will give Peru a capacity to enhance its sovereignty and security with the assistance of France, which will oversee the execution of the contract as per the [bilateral government] accord.”
Peru Orders High-resolution Imaging Satellite from Airbus | SpaceNews.com
