(Reuters) -French satellite company Eutelsat has chosen aerospace giant Airbus to build 100 small satellites for its OneWeb constellation extension, with deliveries to begin around the end of 2026.

OneWeb is a European constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO)  communications satellites acquired by Eutelsat in 2023 to rival the likes of Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

Airbus has so far built built 648 small satellites for OneWeb.

The satellites will also be technologically compatible with a planned 10.6 billion euro ($11.13 billion) secure European satellite constellation called IRIS², due to enter service in 2030.

Eutelsat did not disclose financial terms of the Airbus deal.

(Reporting by Dimitri RhodesEditing by David Goodman)