NATO contracts SES for secure satellite communications via O3b mPOWER

NATO contracts SES for secure satellite communications via O3b mPOWER
by Sophie Jenkins
London, UK (SPX) Sep 16, 2024

The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) has awarded SES a contract to deliver secure high-performance low-latency satellite services via its medium earth orbit (MEO) constellation, enabling global missions for NATO member government organisations, agencies and military.

The MEO Global Services (MGS) award represents a three-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract valued at USD 200M, with two one-year options. This is the first award under the Global Commercially Contracted Satellite Communications Support Partnership (GCC SATCOM SP) established by the U.S. and Luxembourg under the auspices of NSPA in 2022, opening a new era of space cooperation within NATO.

The MGS will be available to all NATO countries, including the U.S. and Luxembourg which are charter members of the agreement, and can support missions on SES's global end-to-end commercial managed services network and national sovereign networks that will be deployed soon under this contract for O3b mPOWER services.

The O3b mPOWER system, used for MGS, is the second-generation MEO constellation, featuring extensive global ground infrastructure and open architecture. The system allows for groundbreaking levels of interoperability, flexibility and government control, to include the capability to provide secure communications and networking solutions for tactical units.

Yuriko Backes, Luxembourg's Minister of Defence: "Luxembourg has developed a significant satcom expertise, and we are happy to leverage it to the benefit of NATO and partners. In line with the Luxembourg Defence Space Strategy and through SES's innovative O3b mPOWER constellation, we help transform government operations and enable cooperative projects while allowing for sovereign government communications networks. Once again, Luxembourg Defence succeeds to consolidate its role of reliable reference partner in the field of space."

"This is a revolutionary step that accelerates governments' access to the latest satellite technology. It demonstrates that collaboration across industry and governments and the adoption of dual-use technology are important elements of effective global defence and security," said Stacy Cummings, NSPA General Manager. "As new nations join the GCC SATCOM SP, they will also be able to leverage MGS, which simultaneously supports secure sovereign networks and enables coalition operations among allies when required."

"The NSPA contract vehicle accelerates government access to secure high-performance satcom innovation," said Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES. "We developed O3b mPOWER with the governments' mission critical connectivity needs in mind and have also been working closely with the NATO nations, to make sure that they get the necessary performance, reliability, security and control from day one. It is our privilege to start delivering this new service to the governments, including the United States and Luxembourg."