The United States chooses iridium to develop a payload for its low Earth orbit satellite navigation system

Iridium Communications has won a $30 million contract from the US Army to develop a payload that will be placed in small satellites that support low-Earth orbit navigation systems.

Through this contract, the concept of a rapidly expanding constellation of small satellites will be supported to provide more efficient transmission of sensor data to soldiers. The development of this new payload is based on the explosion of Iridium technology, a unique service that can transmit data to millions of simultaneously activated devices from space.

“Iridium has long been focused on providing innovative, reliable, and value-added services to the American fighter,” said Scott Shemriff, Executive Vice President of Iridium Government Programs. “This program can help increase the readiness of soldiers to carry out the full range of military operations at the tactical level. This includes the ability to improve the effectiveness of military units, weapons and equipment while fighting against nearby enemies.”

The US Department of Defense (DoD) and Iridium have been in partnership for more than 20 years, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers in the US government using Iridium push-to-talk (PTT), voice, Internet of Things, and broadband services. band L and Iridium Burst. And the continued growth in adoption of Iridium’s services brings with it greater collaboration between government and the Iridium ecosystem of partners who contribute their knowledge to help complement and enhance DoD’s SATCOM capabilities. For this contract, lIridium Satellites and SEAKR partners will provide their expertise as subcontractors to aid in development.

“This is one of the largest engineering contracts in Iridium’s history and we are thrilled to once again demonstrate the value of Iridium and our partner ecosystem at the request of the United States Army,” said Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium.