The French armies are going to increase their space telecommunications capacity tenfold with the two military satellites Syracuse IVA and IVB, which will be put into service between 2022 and 2023. This, thanks to new, more powerful and secure ground stations.
The General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) has entrusted Thales with the development and deployment of the ground segment of the Syracuse IV system.
Or a contract of 354 million euros.
The defense group will deliver some 200 more powerful new generation stations as well as the space telecommunications management system, thus ensuring the interconnection of the Army, Navy and Air Force with the satellites .
This is a new step in the deployment of these stations, a few of which have been fitted to Griffon armored vehicles, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, attack and intervention frigates (FDI) as well as tanker tankers since 2019. armies.
New capacities will be equipped by 2022: Barracuda attack submarines, multi-mission frigates (FREMM), helicopter carriers, Airbus A 400M transport planes, MRTT tankers, combat aircraft as well as more armored vehicles from the army.
Very long distance communications
Unlike the old generation of stations, the new equipment, of different sizes, will be mobile and equipped with antennas permanently pointed at the Syracuse satellites.
These stations will also equip infantrymen, in the form of compact kits that can be transported on human backs and can be deployed in the field in a few minutes.
They will also be installed in command posts in the field or in metropolitan France.
And ten of them will be fixed land stations with large antennae for military bases overseas.
The French armies must benefit from their full capacity by 2023.
“
These stations will allow a large number of users to communicate at the same time, in a secure manner, over very long distances - between the metropolis and bases installed thousands of km away - at very high speed, while being highly protected. against jamming
”, explains Marc Darmon, Deputy Managing Director,“ Secure Information and Communication Systems ”at Thales.
These stations will also be equipped with an access rights management and planning system, based on artificial intelligence.
These complex algorithms will help the military organize their operational needs by planning the right accesses to Syracuse satellites for critical missions.
Ultra fast frequency hopping
All data and information that will pass between armies from one point to another on the planet, via satellites, will be protected from jamming attempts - the US military has admitted that its space telecommunications had suffered several hundred in 2015 alone - thanks to ultra-fast “frequency hopping”, the sequences of which are also encrypted.
All the players in the theaters of operations will thus be networked within a secure space telecoms bubble.
These are cyberprotected from data to frequency changes, through satellite remote controls.
The French defense group stresses that its solution is unique in the world and that its most recent standard, the Stanag 4, has been approved by NATO.
1,600 permanent jobs in France
These stations will be compatible with the generation of Syracuse III satellites, which will coexist for a time with the two Syracuse IVs.
A third satellite could come into service by 2030. All these satellites were provided by Thales Alenia Space, a joint subsidiary of the French defense group and the Italian Leonardo.
This contract perpetuates some 1,600 jobs - 800 at Thales and as many at its subcontractors - in the employment areas of Cholet, where the French group's radio skills center is located in Brives, which will develop stations for military aircraft as well as 'in Gennevilliers in the Paris region.
