- Astrium Services provides the French
Defence Staff with new civil bandwidth in Afghanistan
- Astrium Services secures the
reconfiguration of a satellite for French military needs
The SIDM, which provides
information to safeguard the French armed forces within a radius of several
hundred kilometres, requires two civil Ku-band satellite links: a low data rate
link for it to be remotely controlled from a ground station, and a high data
rate link for it to send in real time the data collected (video, photos) during
the flight.
But the extremely high demand
for satellite communications capabilities from numerous defence ministries and
the international media has exhausted capacity in Afghanistan.
By analysing its portfolio of
contracts with major international operators, Astrium Services was able to
identify the only compatible satellite solution accessible in this region. Astrium
then arranged with an operator for one of its satellites to be repositioned to
meet the specific needs of the SIDM.
For Eric Béranger, CEO of Astrium
Services, “The SIDM’s maiden flight in a foreign theatre of operations proved to
be a huge success for Astrium Services and its subsidiary, London Satellite
Exchange, given the difficulty in identifying and quickly implementing a compatible
satellite solution that is available in this region where this bandwidth is
saturated.”
As part of the deployment of
the SIDM in Afghanistan,
Astrium Services is supplying:
-
The civil Ku-band satellite telecommunications
capabilities
-
The satellite link engineering
-
A dedicated 24-hour hotline for its defence customers
Astrium Services had already provided
similar satellite services for the flight testing of the SIDM UAV programme on
the French territory. EADS DS, the prime contractor for the programme,
delivered the SIDM to the French Army in January 2009.
Astrium, a
wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence
space systems and services. In 2007, Astrium had a turnover of €3.5 billion and
12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United
Kingdom, Spain
and the Netherlands.
Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Space Transportation for launchers
and orbital infrastructure, Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment
and its wholly owned subsidiary Astrium Services for the development and
delivery of satellite services.
EADS
is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2007,
EADS generated revenues of €39.1 billion and employed a workforce of more
than 116, 000.
Press contacts:
Jeremy Close
(Astrium UK) Tel.:
+44 (0)1 438 77 3872
Matthieu Duvelleroy (Astrium FR) Tel.:
+33 (0) 1 77 75 80 32
Mathias Pikelj (Astrium GER) Tel.: +49 (0) 7545
8 9123
Francisco Lechón (Astrium SP) Tel.:
+34 91 586 37 41
http://www.astrium.eads.net
