Eutelsat Doubles Down on OneWeb LEO with Additional 340-Satellite Airbus Order
Eutelsat has ordered a further 340 Low Earth Orbit satellites for its OneWeb network from Airbus Defence and Space, taking total new procurement to 440 spacecraft including a batch ordered in late 2024.
The satellites, to be built in Toulouse from a newly installed production line and delivered from the end of 2026, are primarily aimed at service continuity, replacing early-generation OneWeb satellites reaching end of life. The new batch also introduces technology upgrades, notably advanced digital channelizers and enhanced onboard processing, improving flexibility and efficiency across the constellation.
The order reinforces OneWeb’s position as a 3GPP-aligned LEO platform focused on professional and government connectivity, rather than consumer broadband. Eutelsat says the upgraded satellites will support new business cases, including hosted payloads, and strengthen its ability to deliver low-latency capacity for fixed, mobile, and sovereign-use scenarios.
As Europe’s only fully operational LEO operator, Eutelsat is positioning OneWeb as a long-term pillar of LEO-based non-terrestrial networks, with the scale and technical evolution needed to meet rising demand for resilient, globally available connectivity.