Arianespace achieved a European first on 7 February when it launched an Ariane 44L booster from Kourou carrying two European military communications satellites - Italy's Sicral and the UK's Skynet 4F.
It was the first dual military satellite launch by Arianespace, although it has previously launched three French Telecom Skynet satellites, equipped with military transponders, and two Helios reconnaissance spacecraft.
The 1,489kg (3,280lb) Skynet 4F is the UK Ministry of Defence's final UHF-SHF-S-band Skynet 4 series satellite. Built by Astrium, it will be located at either 1° or 6°E in geostationary orbit (GEO).
A new Skynet 5 fleet is to be built and operated commercially for the MoD by one of two consortia. The Paradigm consortium includes Astrium, Logica, Motorola, TRW, Nortel, Serco, Systems Engineering and BAE Systems. The latter is also part of the competing Rosetta consortium with British Telecom and Lockheed Martin. A "chinese wall" has been built between the two sections of BAE Systems.
The 2,596kg Sicral is Italy's first military satellite and will be located at 16.2° in GEO. Equipped with SHF, UHF and EHF transponders, the satellite was built by the Sitab consortium. This includes Alenia Aerospazio and FiatAvio.
Source: Flight International