On 28 November Lithuania joined the EU SatCom Market becoming the 20th member of this EDA initiative launched in 2009 to provide flexible commercial satellite communication solutions for contributing members. Recently, the project has benefitted from an increased interest, with eight new members joining in the course of 2016.
Commercial satellite communications are used by all nations to provide extra capacity on top of their own military and governmental satellite communications. The EU SatCom Market project provides a flexible and cost-effective way of doing this because it offers its members a pay-per-use solution without imposing any binding financial commitments beyond services ordered.
Within the EU SatCom Market project, the EDA acts as the central purchasing body on behalf of the contributing members. In January this year EDA signed a framework contract with Airbus Defence and Space. Over the last year more than 20 orders have been passed adding up to a total of 57 to date, with a total value €7.5 million.
The current 20 contributing members are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania, the United Kingdom, Serbia, the Athena Mechanism and the civilian missions EUCAP SAHEL Niger, EUCAP SAHEL Mali, EUAM Ukraine, EUCAP NESTOR and EUMM Georgia.
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