July 26, 2023

Mission

MISSION AND PROGRAMME: INTERCEPT, LOCATE AND CHARACTERIZE GROUND RADARS

ELISA (ELectronic Intelligence SAtellite) was a demonstrator initiated by the French Ministry of Defence to complement the first space demonstrators in the signals intelligence field: Cerise (1995), Clementine (1999) and Essaim (2004). Where Essaim’s mission was to study interception of communications, the ELISA programme strived to show that it is possible to locate ground radar and gather intelligence on their technical characteristics from space.

Lessons learned from ELISA paved the way for the CERES programme, comprising three satellites launched on 21 November in 2021. The CERES programme locates and intercepts any type of emission, communications or radar.