[SatNews] The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has selected Airbus Defence and Space to provide satellite airtime for air and ground tracking of ground assets and helicopters on a worldwide basis. The contract is for the provision of Iridium Short Burst Data and Iridium Rudics Data Minutes for the MOD’s established Asset Tracking System (ATS), Helicopter ATS (HeATS) and Ground ATS (GrATS).

The business line Communications, Intelligence & Security is the new one-stop-shop for satellite and terrestrial communications systems, intelligence and security solutions.

The UK ATS meets Operational Command situational awareness requirements by providing the location of tracked ground and air assets in near real-time. The strategic importance of the ATS requires reliability across all of its components including the satellite airtime provided by Airbus Defence and Space to transmit GPS data from assets in the field.

“This service further extends our close co-operation with UK MOD, beyond the Skynet satellite network. Remote tracking and monitoring of critical assets is a rapidly expanding area and we are delighted to be able to support ATS.” said Paul Millington, Head of Government Communications UK Airbus Defence and Space.

Airbus Defence and Space is a satellite services provider with complete control over its own fleet of military satellites and teleports as well as an end-to-end service provider for both military and commercial fixed VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) and mobile bandwidth and network services.