Airbus and its partners are planning to create a European competitor to Starlink

European companies Airbus, Thales and Leonardo are negotiating a joint space project. Project Bromo, named after an Indonesian volcano, envisions the creation of a major European satellite manufacturer. The new company will be modeled after rocket manufacturer MBDA, a joint project between Airbus, Leonardo and BAE Systems.

Image source: NASA

In previous decades, Europe’s leading satellite manufacturers had traditionally focused on launching complex spacecraft into geostationary orbit, but found themselves unprepared for the competition from the plethora of cheap, tiny satellites in low Earth orbit. The rapid growth of the Starlink satellite constellation requires an urgent response from European space companies.

«The Bromo project provides for the creation of a new structure that will unite the satellite assets of the participants. Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani said the talks included various technical discussions and confirmed that the proposed structure would be based on the MBDA model. Cingolani emphasized that satellites will make up 75% of the space economy.

MBDA was founded in 2001 through the merger of the Anglo-French Matra BAe Dynamics, the French Aerospatiale Matra Missiles and the Anglo-Italian Alenia Marconi Systems. The founders of these companies are Airbus, BAE and Leonardo.

Negotiations about a fundamental change in the structure of the industry are taking place at the same time as job cuts in the European space and defense industries. Airbus plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs, or 7% of its Defense and Space division, by mid-2026. Thales, which has an alliance with Leonardo on satellites and services, is in talks with unions to lay off 1,300 workers.

Airbus was created as a result of an agreement between four leading European countries more than 50 years ago, and any problems with the company automatically become a politically sensitive topic. Airbus now carries out most of its space activities in France. The Defense and Space division’s headquarters in Germany are likely to be cut, with the UK expecting at least one plant to close. Spain also faced pressure in the defense sector.

Negotiators said the planned merger does not involve any planned job cuts and could take years to complete. The latter is not surprising – for more than two decades, European satellite companies have not been able to overcome the industry’s problems.