In a separate boost for the British space industry, the Ministry of Defence has decided to extend the Skynet 5 military satellite system by adding a fourth satellite for launch in 2013.
The £400m spacecraft, Skynet 5D, will be built by EADS Astrium. A…
In a separate boost for the British space industry, the Ministry of Defence has decided to extend the Skynet 5 military satellite system by adding a fourth satellite for launch in 2013.
The £400m spacecraft, Skynet 5D, will be built by EADS Astrium. A company named Paradigm Secure Communications will provide the MOD with services from the satellite under the same Private Finance Initiative (PFI) arrangement used for the three existing Skynet spacecraft.
This order brings the total cost of Skynet to £3.6bn over the length of the supply contract, which has now been extended to run till 2022. The MOD said that the order was motivated by rising operational requirements in various theatres of war and increasing demand for Skynet services from Britain’s allies.
