Warsaw, Polond 25 March 2014
The Italian and Polish Ministries of Defence signed yesterday an agreement in Warsaw ratifying the details of the participation of Poland in the Second Generation COSMO-SkyMed programme, as international defence partner.
The agreement represents an major milestone in the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the parties in 2012 and it formally starts the road map that will lead the Polish Ministry of Defence to operate independently a User Ground Segment (data programming and acquisition centre) of the Italian Earth Observation COSMO-SkyMed system.
The COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation is an Italian technological excellence and is recognized as one of the most innovative Earth observation programmes in the world.
The COSMO-SkyMed system was developed by Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%), which, as prime contractor for the programme, is responsible for the development and construction of the entire system, including the ground and space segments. Telespazio, a joint venture between Finmeccanica (67%) and Thales (33%), built the civil and military ground segment, and the logistics/integrated management segment. The two companies will be heavily involved in the implementation of the User Ground Segment for the Polish Defence.
The COSMO-SkyMed constellation, financed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education, Universities and Scientific Research (MIUR), is composed of four satellites equipped with radar sensors that can operate in all weather and visibility conditions and a very high revisit frequency. COSMO-SkyMed was conceived as a programme to meet civil (environment, civil protection, Oil&Gas) and defence objectives (surveillance).