UK Selects Airbus' Satellite To Track Ground Assets

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 company announced in its press release on Wednesday.

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.