FID 2025: The French Defense Innovation Agency (AID) and Skynopy launch the SkyFortress experiment to strengthen the resilience and responsiveness of space operations

Paris, Nov 27 – In a geopolitical landscape where space capabilities are increasingly called upon to meet economic and political sovereignty requirements, ensuring the resilience and responsiveness of space infrastructures—from ground to orbit—has become critical. The attacks targeting several European ground stations at the beginning of the Russia–Ukraine conflict highlighted the urgent need for more resilient ground segments, capable of maintaining continuous operations in all circumstances.

It is within this context that the SkyFortress Innovation Acceleration Project (PAI) has been launched by the Defense Innovation Agency (AID) and awarded to Skynopy. The objective: to test, in an operational demonstration, the hybridisation of a ground station network in order to assess its resilience and responsiveness. Ground stations are terrestrial infrastructures enabling satellite command, data transmission, and the continuity of the space-to-ground link.

SkyFortress aims to provide the French Armed Forces with an additional capability—or a temporary fallback solution—to support the planning and execution of space operations.

Skynopy’s solution relies on advanced orchestration of ground infrastructure: selection, activation, and reconfiguration algorithms dynamically leverage the most relevant stations for each mission, ensuring continuity and security of operations. The experimentation will first be conducted using commercial satellites, before being extended to military assets.

This project is fully aligned with the current priorities of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs, which has identified the ground segment as a critical strategic capability.

SkyFortress also illustrates the progressive integration of commercial actors into France’s space defence posture.

About Skynopy

Founded in 2023 by Pierre Bertrand (CEO) and Antonin Hirsch (CTO), Skynopy provides a satellite connectivity solution enabling operators to access their spacecraft simply, rapidly, and reliably. Its global network—17 operational sites deployed in just 18 months—already supports around ten satellite operators. Skynopy is also scaling through the AKAR project, developed in cooperation with Eutelsat. This programme aims to deploy the first S-, X-, and Ka-band ground station network delivering real-time, high-throughput connectivity for Earth observation satellites.