Interior minister announces Poland's satellite programme
Poland's interior minister announced new satellite programme that will tighten country's defence.
On Monday, an agreement was signed for the Polish satellite programme.
Tomasz Siemoniak, the interior minister and coordinator of Poland's security services, said that the satellites will be "Polish eyes, under Polish control - looking to protect the Polish borders."
The programme will be financed by The European Investment Bank (EIB).
"The EIB Group will invest EUR 300 million in Poland's first earth observation satellite system, which will support several initiatives for dual, civil and security use," EIB President Nadia Calvino said, and added that "it follows the launch of the EIB Group’s new Action Plan to step up our support for Europe’s security and defence industry".
Siemoniak told TVP Info, a national news broadcaster - that up until now, EIB has been rather reluctant to work on projects to do with military and defence, "preferring to invest in the consumer economy, so this is certainly a breakthrough".
The minister added that the project is part of the PLN 10 billion (EUR 2,351 billion) deal called 'European Sky Shield' signed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk last Saturday and that the satellite equipment could be ready for deployment as early as next year.
Up until now, EIB had invested almost EUR 100 billion (PLN 425 billion) in Poland - mainly on building roads, railway upgrades, green energy, wind farms, and the Warsaw metro system. (PAP)
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