The Airbus group’s Defense and Space division has won a 550 million euro contract from the British Ministry of Defense to deliver a military satellite to it.
The Defense and Space division of the Airbus group has won a contract for more than 500 million pounds (550 million euros) from the British Ministry of Defense to deliver a military satellite, the Skynet 6A, the group announced on Sunday.
Launch scheduled for 2025
“Airbus Defense and Space has signed a contract with the British Ministry of Defense (MOD) to extend and improve the Skynet fleet”, involving “development, manufacturing, cyber protection, assembly, integration, testing and the launch of a military communications satellite, Skynet 6A, which is scheduled to launch in 2025, “said the group in a statement.
The contract also covers technological development programs, new secure telemetry systems, monitoring and control, launch, in-orbit tests and updates to the current Skynet 5 system, in service since 2003, adds Airbus.
Airbus, born from the merger in 2000 of the French Aérospatiale-Matra, the German Dasa and the Spanish Casa, recorded a turnover of 70.5 billion euros in 2019.
Defense and space, Airbus’ second market
Three-quarters of its activity (77% of turnover) comes from its commercial aviation branch (54.8 billion), followed by its Defense and Space division (15% to 10.9 billion) and finally from Airbus Helicopters (8% to 6 billion).
Faced with a sluggish space market and deferrals of defense contracts, the Defense and Space branch launched a restructuring plan in February, which plans to cut 2,665 positions, including 926 in Germany, 722 in Spain, 464 in France and 346 UK.
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