The Ministry of Defense and ICEYE, the global leader in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operations for Earth Observation, will strengthen cooperation in remote sensing of the Earth.

Defense industry reported on this.

ICEYE owns the world’s largest constellation of SAR satellites, which provide radar reconnaissance of the planet’s surface regardless of weather conditions.

In the Memorandum, ICEYE continues to constantly ensure that the imagery captured pertinent to Ukraine’s territory is used in the interests of ensuring the security and defense of Ukraine in conditions of armed aggression and not shared in any circumstance with hostile countries or entities.

“Cooperation with ICEYE and the signing of the memorandum will enhance our intelligence work. I’m grateful to the company for its commitment to values and the Ukrainian people. I support the intention to limit space imaging over the territory of Ukraine. We must protect the country on land, in the air, at sea, and in space,” commented Deputy Minister of Defence Kateryna Chernohorenko on the signing of the memorandum.

The Memorandum also outlines ICEYE’s and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence partnering to strengthen Ukraine’s space defense capabilities even further and provide SAR expertise to support defense activities.

Cooperation between ICEYE and Ukraine

In August 2022, for the UAH 600 million raised by Ukrainians for the purchase of Bayraktars, the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation purchased a satellite from the ICEYE for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Foundation signed an agreement with ICEYE, which provided the Ministry of Defense with full access to all the capabilities of one of the company’s satellites. In addition to the satellite, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also gained access to images of the entire constellation of satellites.

As of the end of June this year, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reported that it had received more than 4,000 images of Russian military facilities using the “people’s satellite” during its entire operation.

Throughout using the “people’s satellite” and access to the ICEYE satellite constellation, Ukrainian specialists have taken a total of 4173 images of enemy targets, including:

• 370 – airfields;
• 238 – air defense and radio reconnaissance positions;
• 153 – oil depots and fuel warehouses;
• 147 – missile, aviation weapon, and ammunition depots;
• 17 – naval bases.

The peculiarity of SAR satellites is the principle of their operation based on SAR technology – synthetic aperture radar. The satellite’s radar allows to obtain high-resolution images through clouds, fog and smoke regardless of the time of day and light level.

The ICEYE satellites can collect images and data from any part of the Earth several times a day with the necessary reliability for decision-making by the Ukrainian military command.