The proposed five-year contract with SpaceX, valued at €1.5 billion, would be the largest of its kind in Europe and progressed during the recent meeting between Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Musk at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
The deal is odd as Italy has thrown a large amount of cash the EU's nascent competing IRIS², set to launch in 2029. It was not surprising that after Meloni's meeting she and her government promptly denied that any deal was happening.
Now it turns out that the project has already been approved by Italy's Intelligence Services as well as Italy's Defense Ministry. Officially, Meloni's government insists a deal has not been cut, but now it is saying that discussions are ongoing.
Italy wants a $1.6 billion deal aimed at supplying Italy with a full range of top-level encryption for telephone and Internet services used by the government. The plan also includes communications services for the Italian military in the Mediterranean area as well as the rollout of so-called direct-to-cell satellite services in Italy for use in emergencies like terror attacks or natural disasters.
Italian security minister Guido Crosetto said: "Europe is working on an alternative system, but it’ll take 10–15 years."
If Crosetto is correct then the European project will be considerably later than expected and it is unclear where this would leave IRIS² which is slated to be based in Italy at the Fucino Space Centre. Fucino manages the European Galileo satellite navigation system.
It is poised for a €50 million expansion to support IRIS², creating 200 new jobs and further cementing Italy’s role in European space infrastructure.
Additionally, Italian aerospace companies like Leonardo are key contributors to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) satellite launch technology. Leonardo’s subsidiary, Avio, is the prime contractor and manufacturer of the Vega-C launcher, with its successor, Vega-E, planned for deployment between 2027 and 2028 to support IRIS² launches.
With all this behind the scenes, Italian observers are wondering why Meloni is cutting a deal with Musk and Trump at the expense of an Italian success story.
"If you value ‘Made in Italy,’ don’t sign a satellite deal with Musk," said MEP Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe/France) on X.
He argued that the EU’s GovSatCom programme, launching this year, offers a more cohesive approach for pooling satellite capacity among Italy, France, Luxembourg, Greece, and Spain.
