Comtech antennas. Photo via SES.

Comtech Telecommunications has won a new contract with SES to supply O3b mPOWER 5.5 meter gateways, small gateways, and user terminals, SES announced March 30. The antenna hardware comes in a range of sizes – from the 5.5 meter gateway intended for telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) to smaller antennas for enterprise and government use. The antennas can also be deployed as customer gateways for O3b mPOWER.

O3b mPOWER is the successor to SES’s first-generation O3b Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation. It is scheduled for launch in the coming months and expected to be operational by end of 2022. SES is working with a number of ground tech vendors, including Comtech.

According to SES, these Comtech systems and products offer a host of advantages compared to existing O3b gateways. Some of the advantages include better precision tracking, multi-orbit support, easier installation, lower capital expenditure, and operating expenditure.

“These next-generation gateway antennas are especially important for customers who want to land data at their own site whilst being able to tap into the differentiated O3b mPOWER connectivity services. For our government customers, this is especially attractive since we have a compelling offering with our low-latency, high-throughput services delivered in a secure environment as if it they were using their own dedicated satellite network. This is made possible, in part, due to these gateways that are now more resilient, lighter and easier to install,” Stewart Sanders, executive vice president of Technology and O3b mPOWER manager at SES, said in a statement.

Separately, Comtech on Wednesday appointed Maria Hedden as its new chief operating officer. Hedden has worked for BAE Systems and L3Harris and was most recently senior vice president of Operational Transformation for Leidos.