Japan's IHI To Build Spy Satellites With Finland's ICEYE

2025-10-29 10:14:47

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Japanese aerospace and defense contractor IHI has signed a procurement contract with ICEYE of Finland to build a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observation satellite constellation for national security, social infrastructure and commercial purposes.

The partnership with ICEYE is intended to help Japan's Ministry of Defense achieve its goal of“ensuring the effectiveness of stand-off defense capabilities through strengthened sovereign earth-observation capability... providing the target detection and tracking capabilities required for defense operations on land or at sea,” in the words of IHI management.

SAR satellites use microwave radar pulses to generate high-resolution images of the Earth's surface at night and in any kind of weather. This is made possible by the synthetic aperture.

As explained by NASA,“in order to get a spatial resolution of 10 m, you would need a radar antenna about 4,250 m long... An antenna of that size is not practical for a satellite sensor in space. Hence, scientists and engineers came up with a clever workaround – the synthetic aperture. In this concept, a sequence of acquisitions from a shorter antenna are combined to simulate a much larger antenna, thus providing higher resolution data.”

The agreement follows an MOU signed by the two companies last May 22 to jointly develop an SAR satellite constellation and establish a production facility in Japan. IHI has placed an initial order for four satellites and accompanying image acquisition systems, with an option to procure 20 more. The first satellites should begin transmitting data in fiscal 2026.

The MOU was signed at the DSEI (Defense Security Equipment International) exhibition and conference held at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo.

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