France ordered two military Earth-observation satellites from Airbus and Thales Alenia Space for more than €1.5 billion (US$1.7 billion) to replace three existing orbiters, and to maintain a space-based image-intelligence capability beyond 2035.

Axar.az reports, citing Defense News, that the new satellites in the IRIS system will have an improved operational performance in terms of quality and the speed of making images available compared to the current CSO satellites, France’s Directorate General of Armament said on Monday. They’ll be able to take extremely high resolution images day and night in both the visible and the infrared spectrum around the world, the DGA said.

“The IRIS program aims to ensure the continuity of this capability while improving performance to meet the needs of the forces in a rapidly evolving strategic environment,” the DGA said.

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