IN Brief:
- Xiphera has been selected for an ESA ARTES project focused on secure high-speed satellite communications.
- The project will develop a hardware-based security IP core for optical satellite links operating at up to 100Gbit/s.
- The work supports future constellations that need high bandwidth without weakening cybersecurity or sovereignty.
Xiphera has been selected for a European Space Agency ARTES project to develop high-speed security technology for next-generation optical satellite communications.
The Finnish company will develop a hardware-based security IP core for optical satellite links, enabling secure data transfer at speeds of up to 100Gbit/s. The technology is intended to support future satellite constellations and space systems where high-bandwidth communications and cybersecurity have to be designed together rather than added after launch.
Satellite communications are changing quickly. Future constellations will generate and move larger volumes of data through optical inter-satellite and space-to-ground links. Defence and national-security users want that bandwidth for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, command and control, targeting, and resilient communications. Those same users need assurance that the systems moving the data cannot be easily intercepted, degraded, or manipulated.
Hardware-based cryptography gives the programme its industrial weight. Software security remains essential, but space systems operate under tight performance, power, radiation, and reliability constraints. A security IP core built into the hardware layer can protect data at high speed while reducing latency and preserving throughput. For optical links, where the value of the architecture depends on moving large data streams quickly, encryption cannot become the bottleneck.
Xiphera’s role also brings semiconductor and IP-core production into the defence-space discussion. Space cybersecurity is often discussed in operational terms: protecting satellites from intrusion, jamming, spoofing, or data compromise. The manufacturing reality starts earlier, in chip design, verification, hardware roots of trust, cryptographic accelerators, FPGA integration, secure boot, key management, and supply-chain assurance. If security is not engineered into the electronics, later software controls have less to stand on.
The ARTES project supports European sovereignty in space communications and cybersecurity. Sovereignty is not simply about launching satellites under European flags. It depends on trusted suppliers for critical subsystems, including cryptographic hardware, secure processors, radiation-tolerant components, and verified design IP. A constellation can be European in procurement terms and still depend on fragile or politically exposed supply chains if those layers are neglected.
The same industrial hardening pressure is appearing across defence electronics. US post-quantum deadlines have already raised cyber requirements for defence contractors, especially where long-life systems, sensitive data, and cryptographic transition intersect. Xiphera’s work belongs on that curve. Cryptography, hardware security, and supply-chain trust are becoming production requirements rather than administrative controls.
The 100Gbit/s target is central to the project. Security has often been treated as a performance tax, particularly where encryption, authentication, and key management add computational load. High-bandwidth space links cannot afford controls that slow data movement or complicate mission timelines. Optical satellite communications are attractive because they can move large volumes of data with high throughput and low probability of intercept, but those advantages narrow if security cannot keep pace.
For manufacturers, the design challenge runs across silicon, firmware, verification, and system integration. A security IP core must fit within broader satellite payload electronics, interface cleanly with communications equipment, and maintain performance under space conditions. It also has to be validated for customers using the same technology across defence, government, and commercial infrastructure.
The dual-use nature of satellite communications adds another layer. Commercial constellations are increasingly relevant to military users, while defence requirements are influencing commercial resilience standards. Secure high-speed links can support earth observation, disaster response, intelligence sharing, naval operations, air defence networks, and border security. The same hardware trust problem runs through all of them.
Europe’s space sector has strong launch, payload, and satellite manufacturing capability, but secure digital subsystems are becoming just as important as structures and propulsion. ESA’s project with Xiphera moves attention toward the less visible components that determine whether future constellations can be trusted. Secure optical links will require hardware that is fast, resilient, exportable, and produced through a trusted design chain.
The result could become a small but important building block for future space-based C4ISR. As satellites move more data at higher speed, security has to move into the architecture. Xiphera’s work places that burden at the hardware layer, where the next generation of defence space resilience will increasingly be decided.
