EMS will deliver civil broadband Internet technologies, including a ferrite switch and driver electronics, to meet Thales Alenia Space’s 2013 launch date for the French-Italian telecommunications satellite. EMS Technologies will have switching hardware in use on over 20 military and commercial satellites as a result of the contract.

   The RLNA is a key front-end component of the payload that employs selective beam-switching to provide coverage in high-demand areas. Athena-Fidus will be used by in French and Italian defense forces, as well as civil security agencies, to complement the capabilities already offered by other European cooperative architectures.

   “We selected EMS for their longstanding history of providing space-qualified hardware for communications satellites. The combination of EMS and Thales Alenia Space will provide the French and Italian governments with a highly reliable and capable satellite system for military and government use,” Thales Alenia Space Senior Vice President Nathalie Smirnov said in a statement.