Via Satellite illustration

Space systems manufacturer Airbus has signed on to be OneWeb’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite service distribution partner for European government and military markets under the terms of a new partnership agreement announced on Tuesday.

The two companies said they will develop a complete range of secure services dedicated to the specific needs of select European and United Kingdom armed forces, as well as civil protection and security forces on land, at sea, and in the air. The services will be designed to support future multi-domain cloud applications and enable information superiority.

Airbus said the new services would be available starting at the end of this year, and that government and military users would be able to complement their existing services and networks with the ability to switch between LEO and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite communications throughout operations.

“With the OneWeb LEO constellation we can offer military customers real flexibility as we look to deliver the future integrated mesh networks, combat cloud and information superiority that demand these new and innovative approaches. With this new offering based on the OneWeb constellation and Airbus technology, we will be the very first provider to offer this type of service to European forces,” said Evert Dudok, executive vice president of Connected Intelligence at Airbus Defense and Space.

Airbus currently designs and builds OneWeb at the Airbus OneWeb Satellites facility in Florida. OneWeb expects its services to be available with global coverage of the Earth by the end of 2022 with a constellation of 648 satellites in LEO.