Airbus to supply satellite airtime to UK
Airbus Defence and Space will supply satellite airtime for air and ground tracking of ground assets and helicopters on a worldwide basis to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), the company announced on 11 March.
Under the contract, Airbus will provide Iridium Short Burst Data and Iridium Rudics Data Minutes for the MoD’s established Asset Tracking System (ATS), Helicopter ATS (HeATS) and Ground ATS (GrATS).
Paul Millington, head of government communications UK, Airbus Defence and Space, said: ‘This service further extends our close co-operation with UK MoD, beyond the Skynet satellite network. Remote tracking and monitoring of critical assets is a rapidly expanding area and we are delighted to be able to support ATS.’
The UK ATS provide the location of tracked air and ground assets in real-time, meeting the situational awareness requirements for Operational Command. The strategic importance of the ATS requires reliability across all of its components including the satellite airtime provided by Airbus Defence and Space to transmit GPS data from assets in the field.
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