Defence has awarded satellite operator Intelsat a $180 million contract to extend the life of a satellite providing ultra-high frequency communications for military operations.
The deal will keep Intelsat’s IS-22 satelitte, which has hosted Defence’s UHF payload since 2012, operational for at least another eight years, with options to extend the contract well into the 2040s.
It comes as Defence searches for a new military-grade satellite to operate in the UHF range, following its decision to scrap a multi-billion-dollar contract with Lockheed Martin last year.
The cancelled JP9102 program would have delivered a “sovereign-controlled” satellite constellation, consisting of up to five geostationary satellites and multiple ground stations, for wideband, narrowband and protected communication.
Under the new contract, signed in October following a closed tender process, Intelsat will continue to support Defence’s UHF payload until at least 2033, buying it more time to replace the satellite.
The company acquired by SES for a US$3.1 billion earlier this year will also establish a new Australian-based antenna facility to ensure the “longevity of this essential communications capability”, Defence said.
“This gives Defence the ability to relocate the satellite and provides logistics, training and operational support to ensure ADF personnel stay connected across land, air and sea,” it said on Friday.
Michael Hunt, who leads Defence’s Space Systems Branch, said the new contract would continue to ensure Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel have access to secure, uninterrupted communications for military operations.
“This agreement not only ensures the ADF maintain access to secure UHF satellite communications and remain interoperable with coalition partners, but supports Australian jobs and strengthens sovereign control of critical communications capability,” he said.
In a request for information for a new satellite under the rebranded SP9102 program in June, Defence said ADF personnel currently make “significant use of Military Standard UHF satellite communications capabilities”.
But it wants to ensure that its UHF satellite communications capabilities have “increased resilience against electromagnetic interference (EMI)” from ground-based emitters, particularly uplink connections.
When the JP9102 program was scrapped in November 2024, Defence minister Richard Marles said the project had become outdated before it had even begun, with technologies developed over the last decade to “literally shoot satellites out of the sky”.
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