Overview  |  Description  |  Technical card  |  Industrial card  |  Equipment and ammunition  |  Countries equipped  |  Cooperation

Hélios I, which was the result of cooperation betweenFrance, Italy and Spain, is an optical space observation andreconnaissance system. It gives France and her partners a fullyindependent observation capability that can be employed anywherewithout violating airspace. For such tasks the Héliossystem complemented the Mirage IVP, which previously had been theonly long-range French reconnaissance system.

Day-to-day responsibility for imagery programming, which dependson the current geo-political situation, is shared between theFrench Army Staffs (EMA) and its opposite numbers in thecooperating nations. This enables rapid access to informationabout the ground situation in the regions concerned. To this end,each cooperating nation has its own ground station to process thedata generated by the system.

The DGA remains responsible to the service staffs of the threecollaborators for the continued availability and performance ofthe system.

This cooperative programme is a model and a reference for theEuropean defence identity.

To ensure continuity of availability of the Hélios opticalservice, France, in cooperation with Belgium and Spain, isproducing the second generation Hélios II. This will offera significant improvement in resolution, number of imagesproduced and imagery sequencing rate. Launch of the firstHélios IIA satellite is planned for 2004.