atrexx has announced that it will play an integral role in the operation of the Europe-based U.S. Air Force Eagle Vision system. The system, known as Eagle Vision-1 and temporarily deployed to Naples, Italy, has come into full operation, and will support the U.S. Navy in the collection of imagery and geospatial data taken from multiple satellites as part of a U.S./NATO naval exercise.

atrexx will provide vital satellite-based Internet connectivity for the programme.

The Eagle Vision system is a ground station for the reception of data from civilian remote sensing satellites. With a four metre wide tracking antenna and an accompanying seven metre shelter that houses the electronics for processing the satellite signals, the Eagle Vision operators record images of the Earth on CD and DVD for later viewing.

Doug Armstrong, Programme Manager for Eagle Vision for the U.S. Air Force in Europe (USAFE) commented: "We have a long standing, solid relationship with atrexx and we can completely rely on them for tremendous performance, tremendous flexibility and the capability to support us wherever we go. atrexx was able to come through and offer us a good price for the connectivity. The satcom capability they provide is off-net. In other words, it is not on the government net - it is solely ours and we only have to deal with atrexx. That is the key."

Mr. Armstrong went on to speak about the Naples project: "To establish the ground station in Naples there were adaptations that had to be made to the satellite beam and router configuration, but atrexx supported us 100 percent and ensured a pain-free process. They go the extra mile for us and really provide us with the service we need."

Five Eagle Vision systems are already in operation across the United States of America. The programme is run from offices in the Pentagon and is operated by one active duty and four Air National Guard units.

The ground stations and their personnel are equipped and trained to acquire data from commercial imagery satellites, process it, and turn it into useful products for use in many applications such as disaster relief planning, emergency response to developing humanitarian crises, mission rehearsal support, flight planning, terrain analysis and ocean surveillance.

Products generated by Eagle Vision systems are unclassified and can be shared with host nation organisations, non-government organisations and other potential data users once copyright and licensing restrictions are met.

The U.S. Air Force base at Ramstein, Germany, has been working with atrexx for more than five years after it was recognised that a shift to the Internet was required along with the need to be completely independent of the U.S. Government network and the ability to easily re-locate. atrexx was tasked with providing a reliable Internet service, which the team at Ramstein now completely rely upon.

Miriam Zude, Senior Account Manager at atrexx said: "We are delighted to reinforce our relationship even further with the U.S. Air Force at Ramstein through the Eagle Vision programme. We are committed to offering the highest quality of service we possibly can. We also look forward to our continued work with them long into the future."