The #EU is effectively starting to deploy its own secure satellite communication constellation. Thales Alenia Space (a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%)) has signed an agreement with Eutelsat (the operator of the low-orbit segment of the European IRIS² system ) to manufacture and supply payloads for 330 telecommunications satellites in low Earth orbit (66 satellites with Ka-band only, and 264 satellites with Ku/Ka-bands) for the first phase of the IRIS² project.