The Czech Republic and the Netherlands have awarded Airbus a contract to deliver military satellite communication (SATCOM) services for their armed forces.
Under the agreement, Airbus will provide its UHF (ultra high frequency) SATCOMs for 15 years, with the Czech Army and Royal Netherlands Army utilizing two and three SATCOM channels, respectively.
The UHF payload is scheduled for launch in 2024 aboard the EUTELSAT 36D telecommunications satellite, which is modeled after the Airbus Eurostar Neo platform.
The company will operate the UHF communications from its Network Operations Center in Toulouse, France.
The Airbus UHF
Military UHF SATCOMs have high interoperability and are commonly utilized for multinational and coalition operations because of their flexible, lightweight, robust, and highly secure bandwidth.
The Airbus UHF is a “comparatively rare orbital resource” that will fill the worldwide capacity shortage, according to the company.
The service has 18 channels connecting up to 200 simultaneous communications over Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Brazil, and Western Australia.
Currently, Airbus offers its UHF to European militaries and NATO allied and partner nations. It has signed further orders ahead of its EUTELSAT 36D launch.
UK Skynet and Airbus
The UK Ministry of Defence partnered with Airbus to provide SATCOM services for its Skynet 5 and Skynet 6 programs.
The programs will develop a next-generation strategic communications network for the UK armed forces and its allies using space assets.
