Italy's first military communications satellite designed for interoperability with civil emergency networks is set to be launched in September or October 2008. About a quarter of SICRAL 1B's transmission capacity will be offered by Telespazio's lead industrial consortium to NATO and non-NATO institutional organisations.
The satellite will complement SICRAL 1, which was launched in February 2001 and is used by Italy and NATO, under the Satcom Post 2000. Sea Launch is the SICRAL 1B platform and lift service provider.
In July the Italian defence ministry signed a €118 million ($167 million) contract with a Telespazio-led consortium, which will be responsible for both the space and ground programme, launch and early operation phase (LEOP), and subsequent in-orbit testing. The total SICRAL 1B programme cost will be €362 million, including €58 million for the spare spacecraft bus, which was bought in 2000 as a precaution against launch or service failure of SICRAL 1 system.
Manufactured and integrated by Thales Alenia Space, SICRAL 1B will have an expected operating life of 14 years and carry 3 UHF, 5 SHF and 1 EHF/Ka band transmitters.
According to General Pietro Finocchio, head of the Italian defence ministry's general directorate of telecommunications, information and advanced technologies (Teledife), SICRAL 1 is to be replaced in 2011 by a more advanced satellite, SICAL 2. Contracts for that spacecraft should be signed by the end of this year, he says.
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SICRAL 1 was launched in February 2001 and is used by Italy and NATO |
Source: Flight International