[Satellite Today 03-25-09] Intelsat General Corp. has been awarded a multi-year contract from Artel Inc. to supply bandwidth to the U.S. military to support UAV surveillance operations, Intelsat announced March 24.
    The contract, awarded under Artel’s Defense Information Systems Network Satellite Transmission Services-Global contract, calls for up to 432 megahertz of bandwidth using 12 Ku-band transponders on Intelsat’s Galaxy 26 satellite, which had most recently been serving North America.
    Intelsat will reposition the satellite to serve U.S. and international military units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Intelsat began moving Galaxy 26 two weeks from its orbital slot at 93 West once the existing commercial traffic assigned to the spacecraft had been shifted to another Intelsat satellite, Galaxy 25.
    The satellite, using wide-beam capability, can support up to 40 UAV sorties simultaneously.