Service Provision over 15 Years
Airbus is to provide the Czech and Dutch armed forces with satellite communications over a 15-year period, the company announced on 9 September.
The two nations will use two and three channels respectively of the Airbus UHF military communications hosted on Eutelsat 36D, scheduled for launch in 2024. The payload allows the company to offer a new UHF service to the armed forces – particularly those of European and NATO states. As UHF capacity is in global short supply, the solution resolves capacity shortages – and explains why Airbus is signing up firm orders well ahead of launch.
To be operated from the Airbus Network Operations Centre in Toulouse, the 18 UHF channels will enable up to 200 simultaneous communications over an area including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, large parts of Asia and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. UHF enables lightweight, robust and highly secure communications and a wide range of suitable hardware is available.
Airbus is the only armed forces private satcom operator to cover the full spectrum of military (UHF, X, Ka Mil) and commercial (L, C/Ku, Ka) frequency bands and applications. The company will build the Eutelsat 36D satellite based on its Eurostar Neo platform: the platform will be equipped with 70 Ku-band transponders for TV broadcast, as well as its milsatcom function.
