On 28 February, Spain joined the EU SatCom Market becoming the 22nd member of this EDA initiative launched in 2009 to provide flexible commercial satellite communication solutions for contributing members. Spain is already the second new member in 2017 given that Estonia also joined on 24 January.
The EU SatCom Market project has been benefitting from an increased interest over the past twelve months with no less than ten new members having joined.
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, offering 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 and the current Framework Contract was signed in January 2016 with Airbus Defence and Space as the services provider.
The current 22 contributing members are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania, the United Kingdom, Spain, 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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