WASHINGTON — SES Space & Defense announced June 28 it won a five-year contract price as much as $134 million to offer X-band satellite communications services to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The contract is a “global X-band blanket purchase agreement,” the primary major defense deal awarded to SES’ U.S. subsidiary because it acquired DRS Global Enterprise Solutions last yr.
SES, headquartered in Luxembourg, operates a industrial fleet of greater than 70 geosynchronous and medium Earth orbit satellites.
In August 2022 it acquired DRS’s satcom integration business focused on multi-orbit communications networks and managed satcom services for U.S. government agencies.
DoD will get services from GovSat-1
SES Space & Defense, based in Reston, Virginia, will supply DoD X-band communications provided by the GovSat-1 satellite, a three way partnership between SES and the federal government of Luxembourg for secure military communications.
The GovSat-1 satellite operates within the X-band and military Ka-band.
X-band communications is primarily utilized by the military in land and maritime operations.
For the X-band contract, SES said it’s partnering with other undisclosed network integrators, satellite communications providers and teleport operators to make sure a “highly secure global terrestrial network.”
The contract was awarded by the U.S. Space Force’s Business Satellite Communications Office, which is an element of the Space Systems Command.
“The U.S. Space Force established this contract as a mechanism to enable access to industrial X-band capability globally for the DoD,” said SES Space & Defense President and CEO David Fields.