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Paradigm signs 15 year contract to provide Military Satellite Communications to NATO Following the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NATO, the UK, Italy and France for the provision of NATO’s satellite communications services from 2005 until 2019, Paradigm Secure Communications has today signed a contract to provide the UK share of NATO’s Space Segment requirements. The contract is valued at around £100m over the concession.This is the culmination of the competitive procurement and negotiation process following NATO’s announcement in May 2004 of the selection of the UK, Italian and French consortium as the preferred bidder. The proposal was submitted in August 2002. The signature of this contract is another landmark in the development of Paradigm’s military satellite communications business. After signing the £2.5Bn UK MOD Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract in October 2003, Paradigm has supplied specialist military communications services to a number of countries and now also looks forward to a long-term partnership with NATO. The NATO contract is a further demonstration of the flexibility and opportunity that can be provided within the PFI business model. From the beginning of 2005 Paradigm will be providing the UK share of the military satellite space segment communications capability to NATO and its member states for use when on NATO operations. Paradigm will initially use its existing Skynet 4 constellation and then migrate to new Skynet 5 satellites from 2007. Paradigm is procuring the entire Skynet 5 system including satellites, ground stations, land mobile terminals, shipborne terminals, satellite and network control and management systems from EADS Astrium Ltd. Through the national military satellite communications systems of France, Italy and the UK, NATO will be able to satisfy its ever-increasing milsatcom requirements. The new and highly capable systems now available will ensure coherence with the changing NATO crisis management role and provide a fully deployable communications capability in support of such operations. |
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