Philip Smart | Adelaide
Airbus Defence and Space will reposition one of its Skynet 5A secure satcom satellites to cover the eastern Asia Pacific region, including Australia, for the first time.
Announced at the Satellite 2015 conference in Washington DC on Monday, the move will see a Skynet 5A move 67,000km from its current 6 degrees East position above Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to a new position at 97 degrees East, by mid-2015.
Airbus Defence and Space owns and operates the hardened Skynet X-band satellite constellation of eight satellites and the ground network to provide all Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communications to the UK Ministry of Defence.
The contract also allows other NATO and allied governments to use the Skynet system to augment their existing services.
Airbus Defence and Space also leases the X-band hosted payload on Telesat’s Anik G1 satellite which covers the Americas and parts of the Pacific including Hawaii and Easter Island.
Skynet provides secure satellite communication services on X-band, a frequency band resilient to rain-fade (signal interference by precipitation) and primarily reserved for military and government users.
It also provides UHF services for mobile voice and data connectivity.
“The move of Skynet 5A will enhance MILSATCOM capabilities where our customers need it, offering unique solutions for international security and humanitarian missions, and other coalition operations”, said Evert Dudok, Head of Communications, Intelligence and Security at Airbus Defence and Space.