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.
Thales and Airbus Defence and Space have received the GeoMaps contract to supply digital geographic data for the French Ministry of Defence’s mapping database, Thales announced on 5 April. The contract was awarded by IGN on behalf of the DGA.
The data will be supplied on a range of scales and will be based on images received by the two Pléiades satellites with the aim of making geometry and formatting of all reference mapping data consistent to optimise interoperability between the ministry's various services and systems, as well as with their partners and allies.
GeoMaps will supersede the TopoBase Défense system as one of the main building blocks of the GEODE 4D programme - the four-dimensional defence data (geographical, hydrographic, oceanographic and meteorological) - which integrates all the systems required to keep the French armed forces sufficiently informed of the nature and characteristics of the theatre concerned. In the future, the GeoMaps data will be managed by the GEODE 4D programme and disseminated to all the defence systems and in all theatres of operations.
Bernhard Brenner, head, intelligence business cluster, Airbus Defence and Space, said: ‘The accuracy of the data we provide is vital if the operations which French armed forces are involved in and the fight against terrorism in particular will succeed.’
The contract will run until 2021.
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.
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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.