European aerospace giant EADS is the prime contractor with major subcontracting by Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture company 67 percent held by France’s Thales and Italy’s Finmeccanica with a 33 percent share.

Included are the costs of the satellites, launches by Soyuz or Ariane-5 rockets in Guiana and annual operating costs of 800 million euros.

With many ESA member states in economic difficulties, questions have grown over the necessity of a system whose services are already assured by the U.S. GPS constellation.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Miles; editing by Andrew Roche)