According to Dmytro Khmara, Vice President of Satellite Technologies at Himera, under an optimistic scenario, the deployment of the Ukrainian satellite communications network may take at least 2-3 years.
According to Dmytro Khmara, Vice President of Satellite Technologies at Himera, under an optimistic scenario, the deployment of the Ukrainian satellite communications network may take at least 2-3 years.
He said this in an interview with Defense Express.
"Previous practice shows that similar projects in the world are implemented within 5-7 years. It should also be taken into account that technologies are changing very quickly today. The market is very dynamic, there are a lot of players. Every few months, new hardware appears that gives better results," he made it clear, although he outlined an optimistic scenario in which this would happen faster.
However, he denied that the solution proposed by his company in cooperation with partners is a “replacement for Starlink.”
"No, we are not going to replace Starlink. We are creating strategic communication using satellites to connect command centers for the Ministry of Defense, critical infrastructure points," Khmara emphasized.
He added that the goal of the project is to build a national secure communications system.
"The main thing in this regard is that it will be fully controlled by Ukrainians. No one abroad will have a single button to limit or turn it off," explained Dmytro Khmara.
As dev.ua reported, on October 1, Ukrainian communications developer HIMERA, together with Danish company GomSpace, launched and began operating the OBRIA NANO spacecraft. This is the first test satellite within the OBRIA initiative, which aims to create a sovereign national satellite communications network.
Later, it became known that at least 100 satellites would be needed to create the Ukrainian OBRIA satellite communications network.
In a comment to dev.ua, HIMERA CEO Misha Rudominsky revealed key technical details, mission financing issues, and the strategy for deploying the future satellite network.
