Canada’s enrichment of her Arctic military Satellite Communications (SATCOM) coverage has taken an important step forward.
In August Telesat secured a 15-year contract worth $1.93 billion for the provision of military Ka-band (26.5 gigahertz/GHz to 40GHz uplink/18GHz to 20GHz downlink) coverage at latitudes of between 65 degrees and 90 degrees north, according to a press release. The contract forms part of the Canadian armed forces’ Enhanced Satellite Communications Project – Polar (ESCP-P) initiative. SATCOM links will be provided via Telesat Lightspeed’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation.
The company is planning to launch the first of 225 MDA Space Aurora LEO spacecraft from late 2026. According to Telesat, the constellation will be sent aloft in batches of up to 18 satellites onboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket. SATCOM services will commence from late 2027 and the satellites will provide both commercial and military Ka-band connectivity. ESCP-P link provision is expected to commence from 2028, the press release continued. The $1.93 billion contract value includes two five-year option periods each of which is worth $143.44 million.
User terminals
Beyond the August ESCP-P contract future agreements could be in the offing which, according to Michèle Beck, a Telesat senior vice president, will “include end-to-end network integration services, which includes user terminals”. The development of new user terminals will see the company “evaluating existing and future Canadian armed forces platforms and existing equipment to determine the remaining user terminal requirements”.
While the ESCP-P undertaking provides military Ka-band connectivity, the Canadian armed forces are also obtaining Ultra High Frequency (UHF: 399 megahertz/MHz to 470MHz) and X-band (7.9GHz to 8.4GHz uplink/7.25GHz to 7.75GHz downlink) connectivity as part of the overarching effort. MDA Space will provide the UHF and X-band constellation which will enhance coverage above latitudes of 65 degrees, according to the Canadian Department of National Defence. The UHF and X-band constellation will be in a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). Whereas LEO satellites typically orbit at altitudes of up to 432 nautical miles/nm (800 kilometres/km), MEO spacecraft reside in orbits of between 1,080nm (2,000km) and 19,323nm (35,786km) above Earth. As of August, reports stated that the contract for MEO SATCOM provision is still being finalised, including the number of satellites comprising the constellation.
Assessment
The provision of both Ka-band LEO and UHF/X-band MEO Arctic SATCOM coverage for the Canadian armed forces marks an important enhancement in sovereign tactical, operational and strategic military connectivity. For example, one report stated that the LEO Ka-band provision will free up the Canadian government from having to lease 500MHz of Ka-band provision from the private sector.
According to Armada records, the Canadian armed forces currently have access to the United States’ Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) and Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) networks. WGS provides X-band and Ka-band links with AEHF providing Q-band (43.5GHz to 45.5GHz) uplink and Ka-band downlink. Additional tactical UHF links are provided via the US UHF Follow-On (UFO) and Mobile User Objective System.
The Canadian armed forces can also access UHF and X-band connectivity provided by other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member state sovereign spacecraft via the alliance’s pooled SATCOM services. Nonetheless, as tensions with Russia continue to dominate NATO’s strategic agenda, adequate SATCOM provision in the high north, where any war with the former is most likely to be fought, remain paramount. The ESCP-P undertaking is clearly playing an important role in enhancing Canadian SATCOM provision in the Arctic.
by Dr. Thomas Withington
