Australia looks towards space with force restructure, investment and training
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space have signed an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Defence to supply the ground segment of the COSMO-SkyMed satellite network to the Polish Ministry of Defense.
The $33.79 million contract is part of an agreement between the Polish and Italian defence ministries signed in 2012. The agreement was for Poland to take on a significant role in the second-generation COSMO-SkyMed programme and build an associated user segment in the country.
Thales Alenia Space Italia will act as lead company for the contract, on behalf of a temporary consortium which includes Telespazio.
The contract concerns the ground segment to be delivered to Poland to allow access to COSMO-SkyMed data. The Polish Defense User Ground Segment (P-DUGS) will be able to request images, receive satellite data and generate and store different types of products. It will be an integral part of the overall COSMO-SkyMed ground segment, based on its modular, scalable design.
P-DUGS will be implemented in two phases. The first phase is planned for late 2016 or early 2017 and will enable access to first-generation satellites. The second phase is planned for between the end of 2017 and early 2019 and will add access to second-generation satellites.
The first generation comprises a constellation of four satellites, equipped with radar sensors capable of operating under any atmospheric and visibility conditions and featuring a very high revisit frequency. COSMO-SkyMed was designed to meet both defense and civil requirements.
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
The Portuguese company’s naval communications system is in service across more than a dozen countries. It has turned to its home nation for support in developing a new vehicle based C2 system.
The Vision4ce Deep Embedded Feature Tracking (DEFT) technology software is designed to process video and images by blending traditional computer vision with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to present actionable information from complex environments.
Persistent Systems has been cleared by National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit sensitive data on commercial networks. The devices are added to the NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) component list which also includes other companies’ products providing the same security.
The release of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) has been long promised as mid-year. It is possible it could be as early as 2 June although the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to play its cards close to its chest.
Intelsat outlines how its multi-orbit SATCOM architecture is enhancing connectivity and resilience for special operations forces operating in degraded and contested environments.