The French Ministry of Defence has renewed its telecommunications satellite services contract by appointing the DIRISI (joint directorate for defence infrastructure networks and information systems).

DIRISI will renew the civil space capacity ASTEL-S for Astrium services providing French forces with custom-made civilian (Ku, Ka, C) and military (UHF, X) satellite communications.

ASTEL-S services will enable networking of French Army units fitted with tri-band land stations, navy ships (fitted with C and Ku-band antennae), air force users (namely SIDM UAVs), and ministry teleports and metropolitan sites.

All demands would be processed by a single interlocutor throughout the year as per the DIRISI’s appraisal – the ministry could need 100MHz in space capacity.