The UAE’s Falcon Eye Satellites: Quis custodiet?
Contract still hung up, UAE wants to renegotiate tech transfer.
June 8/14: Hang Ups. Despite American clearances (q.v. Feb 14/14), and contrary to earlier reports, Defense News reports that the deal is still hung up:
“UAE defense officials negotiating the contract have requested technology transfer as part of the satellite deal. The level of transfer, however, is yet to be decided…. According to the UAE official who is close to the negotiations, the UAE Defense Ministry is awaiting France’s decision on technology transfer before resuming negotiations to purchase the satellites.”
Local assembly is generally the first level of transfer. Beyond, it will be interesting to see how far France is willing to go – and where else the UAE thinks they can go to get transfers of advanced reconnaissance satellite technology. Sources: Defense News, “UAE, France Try To Restart Satellite Deal”.
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The United Arab Emirates’ AED 3.4 billion (EUR 703 million/ $925 million) “Falcon Eye” optical observation satellites are meant to provide a wholly new capability to their military by 2018, and represented the most advanced optics France had ever sold to another country. France’s CNES cites 0.7m / 2′ 4″ spatial resolution for the Pleiades Class at nadir, and a field of view of 20 km. EADS DS/ Astrium touts up to 100 km x 100 km in strip mapping mode.
The deal has had a rough road lately, and is currently hung up in re-negotiations…
The Stars are Not Aligned: What Went Wrong?
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The USA has a policy of “shutter control”, which prevents satellites that use American components from taking pictures of sensitive US military installations. To do that, of course, you have to know where the system is looking. No relay of transmitted data or positioning = no shutter control.
On the other hand, Defense News quotes UAE sources who say that France won the bid because it was seen as free of shutter control restrictions. It’s also true that trust in the USA is approaching all-time lows in many Arab governments, which makes them much less interested in having the USA tipped off to their reconnaissance targets of interest.
A whole series of questions linger.
First, why was this equipment only discovered 2 months after the deal? It seems difficult to believe that French engineers in the bidding firms wouldn’t have known about the components, and that isn’t the kind of surprise to spring on an important customer. Would the former EADS Astrium really have assumed that the UAE would not discover this? Could the UAE really have been kept in the dark all this time?
Second, is similar equipment standard in the existing Pleiades satellites, or was it added to the Falcon Eyes? France considers its Pleiades satellites to be an important component of its sovereign defense, which generally doesn’t involve any kind of US control or monitoring. If the components do what they’re alleged to do, many experts are puzzled at their existence.
Third, is there another agenda here?
That’s being asked on 2 fronts. One is whether a losing competitor in Russia or even the USA tipped the UAE off to the existence of these components, in order to re-open the deal.
The second front is the UAE itself. If they did know in advance, is this a negotiating tactic to win concessions on the satellite order, or on a separate deal where concessions would both secure that separate order, and resolve a manufactured situation? Now that they’ve dropped Eurofighter from consideration, for instance, Dassault is in the driver’s seat for a major fighter buy. The UAE has always seen French offers as too expensive – could linkage offer them the negotiating breakthrough they need?
Understanding these questions would helps observers understand the story. The problem with this story is that few, if any, of these questions are likely to receive public answers.
Contracts & Key Events
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June 8/14: Hang Ups. Despite American clearances (q.v. Feb 14/14), and contrary to earlier reports, Defense News reports that the deal is still hung up:
“UAE defense officials negotiating the contract have requested technology transfer as part of the satellite deal. The level of transfer, however, is yet to be decided…. According to the UAE official who is close to the negotiations, the UAE Defense Ministry is awaiting France’s decision on technology transfer before resuming negotiations to purchase the satellites.”
Local assembly is generally the first level of transfer. Beyond, it will be interesting to see how far France is willing to go – and where else the UAE thinks they can go to get transfers of advanced reconnaissance satellite technology. Sources: Defense News, “UAE, France Try To Restart Satellite Deal”.
Feb 14/14: US clearance. The USA has cleared the export of the American components involved in Falcon Eye, reportedly over objections and lobbying from Lockheed Martin. Clearance reportedly came from the White House, after the Department of State passed the buck. The State Department is in the process of overhauling its satellite-related export controls, which American firms hold partially responsible for their significant loss in global market share over the last decade.
Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israel says that the 2 Falcon Eye satellites will be launched in 2017 and 2018 aboard European Vega rockets, per a contract signed in late 2013. Sources: Space News, “U.S.-French Deal Gives Green Light to UAE Observation Satellites” | Defense News, “France Cleared To Sell Falcon Eye Satellite to UAE” | La Tribune, “Emirats Arabes Unis : la France va rapidement signer le contrat de deux satellites espions”.
Go-ahead and Launch details
Jan 5/14: Controversy. The 2-satellite deal is mired in a supposed dispute about American components, which are said to be able to relay the data the satellite transmits. Airbus Defence and Space (Astrobus satellite) and Thales Alenia Space (payload) have been asked to replace the suspect US components, but the UAE has reportedly begun discussions with Russia and China as a fallback position.
The core issues are discussed above. Sources: Defense News, “French-UAE Intel Satellite Deal in Doubt” | France 24, “‘Sabotage’ fears hit France-UAE spy satellite deal” | Infosecurity, “US Backdoors in French Satellites Threatens Billion Dollar Deal With the UAE” | Russia Today, France-UAE satellite deal shaky after US spy tech discovered onboard – report.
July 23/13: Contract. The United Arab Emirates’ signs an AED 3.4 billion (EUR 703 million/ $925 million) contract with EADS Astrium (rebranded Airbus Defence & Space) for 2 “Falcon Eye” optical observation satellites. Thales Alenia Space will be responsible for the payload. The European firms reportedly overturned an early preference for Lockheed Martin’s Digital Globe offering, and a lack of American “shutter control” over what the satellite can see is reportedly one of the distinguishing factors. The deal also involves a wider relationship:
“…countries buying spy satellites from US firms such as Lockheed may not always benefit from these technological advantages,” [GCSP expert] Vautravers explained…. “It’s not just satellites that have been sold, but also access to image processing software, the training of specialists in intelligence analysis, transmission systems and encryption… a partnership between the French intelligence services and those of Abu Dhabi, which will start with the training of staff on-site.”
Sources: France 24, “France beats US to Abu Dhabi spy satellite deal”
Falcon Eye contract
Additional Readings
- CNES – Pleiades
- EADS Defence & Space – Pleiades Satellite Imagery
