EU — EUSC (European Union Satellite Centre) Annual Report 2009

“The Coun­cil

• wel­comed the sup­port pro­vid­ed by the EUSC to the mil­i­tary oper­a­tions of the EU, in par­tic­u­lar its sup­port to the oper­a­tions Ata­lan­ta and EUFOR Chad/RCA, as well as its increas­ing role in sup­port to the EU civil­ian mis­sions, in par­tic­u­lar in the sup­port to the EU Mon­i­tor­ing Mis­sion in Georgia,
• encour­aged the facil­i­tat­ed access of the EUSC to gov­ern­men­tal imagery, (…)
• encour­aged the EUSC to con­tin­ue to explore coop­er­a­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties where ben­e­fits for fur­ther improve­ment in EU cri­sis response capa­bil­i­ties could arise.”

(Coun­cil con­clu­sions on ESDP, 18 May 2009)

Fore­word by the Director

Dear Madam/Sir:

Space-based intel­li­gence is one of the key fun­da­men­tals for sound Euro­pean Union deci­sion-mak­ing as well as suc­cess­ful plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of EU civil­ian mis­sions and mil­i­tary oper­a­tions. Whether for mon­i­tor­ing of pirate-plagued waters off the coast of Soma­lia or for cri­sis man­age­ment of con­flicts in Africa or Asia, ana­lyt­i­cal prod­ucts and ser­vices based on satel­lite imagery prove time and again invalu­able for both senior deci­sion-mak­ers and civil­ian and mil­i­tary forces on the ground. In order to answer the require­ments from its cus­tomers, includ­ing Oper­a­tional Head­quar­ters of EU NAVFOR, the EU Civil­ian Plan­ning and Con­duct Capa­bil­i­ty, EU Mil­i­tary Staff, EU Joint Sit­u­a­tion Cen­tre, EU Mem­ber States and the Unit­ed Nations, the EU Satel­lite Cen­tre, in 2009, fur­ther con­sol­i­dat­ed its access to high res­o­lu­tion gov­ern­men­tal and com­mer­cial imagery. While the offer of com­mer­cial satel­lite imagery increased, the EUSC con­tin­ued to close­ly inte­grate valu­able gov­ern­men­tal data from EU Mem­ber States into its prod­ucts, espe­cial­ly from satel­lites like Hélios (France, Italy, Spain, Bel­gium, Greece), COS­MO-SkyMed (Italy) and soon also SAR-Lupe (Ger­many).

How­ev­er, satel­lite imagery is just one part of EUSC prod­ucts. The oth­er part is the result of the human capac­i­ty to under­stand this data and, through inter­pre­ta­tion and enrich­ment with col­lat­er­al data, turn it into a rel­e­vant, time­ly and use­ful ana­lyt­i­cal prod­uct. In the busi­ness of infor­ma­tion man­age­ment, data rep­re­sent only ca. 40 % of the end prod­uct, where­as analy­sis can rep­re­sent 60% or more. Expe­ri­enced imagery ana­lysts at the EUSC – opti­cal and radar experts, func­tion­al and region­al spe­cial­ists, mil­i­tary and civil­ian – cre­ate the added val­ue that turns satel­lite imagery into rel­e­vant geospa­tial intel­li­gence. The EUSC has been devel­op­ing this core activ­i­ty for more than a decade now, and 2009 has again proven us right in insist­ing on this num­ber one pri­or­i­ty for capa­bil­i­ty devel­op­ment. I hope that with this annu­al report the read­er will gain a bet­ter insight into the many-faceted activ­i­ties of the EUSC in 2009 and learn more about how the Cen­tre sup­ports the EU Com­mon Secu­ri­ty and Defence Pol­i­cy in help­ing the Euro­pean Union become a true glob­al actor.

Sincerely,

Tomaž Lovrencic 

To down­load the report in detail as a pdf-file click here.

Source:
Euro­pean Union Satel­lite Cen­tre
Tel. +34 91 678 60 00
Fax: +34 91 678 60 06
e‑mail: info@eusc.europa.eu
Postal address:
Apdo de Corre­os 511
E‑28850 Tor­re­jón de Ardoz
Madrid, Spain
www.eusc.europa.eu

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