Poland’s Ministry of National Defence has awarded SATIM a contract to supply software that automates the analysis of military satellite imagery. The Polish company specializes in artificial intelligence tools built for synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, imagery.

SATIM is also building on ongoing cooperation with Germany’s Rheinmetall in support of the German SPOCK-1 satellite reconnaissance program. Together, the Polish and German work places the company inside two military efforts centered on extracting intelligence from radar imagery.

The new software will support Warsaw’s MikroSAR earth observation program, according to a Nov. 12 statement from SATIM. The project is being advanced by a consortium of Finland’s ICEYE and Wojskowe Zakłady Łączności No 1.

Wojskowe Zakłady Łączności No 1 is a subsidiary of the Polish state run defense group PGZ. MikroSAR is the first component of the military space capabilities that Poland intends to develop in the coming years.

“Access to SAR imagery is only the first step. The value comes from extracting useful intelligence quickly, consistently and at scale,” said Jacek Strzelczyk, the CEO of SATIM.

“This contract allows us to support Poland’s sovereign reconnaissance capabilities and demonstrate how automated analysis helps analysts make more effective use of radar data,” Strzelczyk said.

SAR satellites can collect imagery regardless of sunlight conditions, giving military users access to radar based observation at any hour. They can also acquire imagery through cloud cover, a capability that has driven interest among users.

Collecting the imagery, however, is only part of the task. Interpreting SAR data and correctly identifying military equipment within it can be difficult and time consuming, creating an opening for specialized software providers such as SATIM.

Company representatives said user interest increased after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, where cloud cover is frequently a problem. While SAR radars can see through clouds, the resulting imagery remains difficult for analysts to interpret.

“Our solution offers a very high level of accuracy, reaching 90–95% for most object classes,” Mateusz Raczyński, a SATIM spokesperson, told Defense News.

The company says its software can identify objects across approximately 300 classes. Those categories include vessels, aircraft and vehicles, covering several types of equipment that can appear in radar imagery.

“We can identify objects across approximately 300 classes, including vessels, aircraft, and vehicles,” Raczyński said.

SATIM announced another milestone in its cooperation with Rheinmetall on Nov. 2. The automated analysis pipeline provided by the Polish company had moved into operational testing for the SPOCK-1 program.

“The automated analysis pipeline supplied by SATIM to Rheinmetall has now entered operational testing phase, supporting the German Armed Forces’ analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery,” the Polish business said.

SATIM’s work with Rheinmetall began with the German industry validating the Polish company’s software and later including it in support of SPOCK-1. Raczyński described that program as one of the major intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs globally.

“Being a Polish company, we first established cooperation with the German industry that was open to validating our software and after that including it to support the SPOCK-1 program, one of the major ISR programs globally,” Raczyński said.

SATIM is now expanding its work with Poland while pursuing additional customers around the world. Its solutions are already used in the United States, Japan, Qatar and the UAE, according to Raczyński.

The company also plans to explore another market soon. Raczyński said SATIM would travel to Vietnam the following month as it continues looking for customers for its automated radar imagery analysis services.