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Defence group upgrading imagery service for civil, military clients

15th June 2018

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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The Intelligence business of Airbus Defence & Space (Airbus DS) will soon be able to provide clients with a digital platform for imagery (largely, but not solely, from satellites). Called OneAtlas, it is the result of years of development work and testing by the company, which operates its own constellation of optical and radar erth observation satellites. These provide a broad spectrum of multispectral imagery, from wide-swathe low resolution to narrow-swathe high resolution. In future, it may also operate very high altitude, extremely long endurance (as long as three months) unmanned air vehicles – a category it designates as high-altitude pseudosatellites. (Airbus DS is currently manufacturing such aircraft for the UK Royal Air Force.)

This is part of an investment of hundreds of millions of euros to upgrade the company’s imagery system, including the construction and launch of new satellites. “This is a very significant investment for us,” notes Airbus DS Intelligence head of systems and solutions Emmanuel Flory. Clients include States – both armed forces and civilian agencies – and non-State organisations, including businesses. “We’re also a systems provider. “We can provide command and control systems and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.” The company also supplies the necessary training and maintenance services, if required. Overall, the sale of satellite imagery or products and services derived from satellite imagery accounts for 40% of the Intelligence unit’s business.

To further improve its ability to support its customers, the company is creating its own cloud computing system for the data it produces. This would, for example, serve customers not wishing to use the cloud systems developed and operated by the giant US information technology and services corporations, because these are subject to US legislation. This would include a specific defence domain, which would be very secure.

“We’re [also] developing a cloud architecture which we can deliver to a customer,” he points out. Countries will be able to buy, own, operate such cloud systems, which permit massive processing. That it is a cloud does not mean that it has to be hosted ‘elsewhere’, in other countries. Each country that buys the system would have its own defence Cloud, running on its own national defence systems. But the use of cloud architecture requires a cultural change in any armed force that adopts such as system, for it eliminates organisational and functional ‘silos’ in the structure of military forces – silos that were often put in place to ensure security.

On the civilian side, the company can provide value-added services for agriculture, forestry, the oil and gas sector, mining and air transport. It can also provide location-based services, such as supplying images to services such as Google Earth. With its new digital platform, it will be able to supply customers with actionable data, extracted from imagery, without the customer needing to receive the imagery itself. A recent new application for satellite imagery is for major Western corporations to monitor the activities of their suppliers in developing countries to ensure these suppliers are not damaging natural ecosystems through their production methods, or by engaging in deforestation to increase their production areas.

The Intelligence unit falls under the Communications, Intelligence and Security arm of Airbus DS, itself part of the larger Airbus Group. It operates and has exclusive commercial access to a constellations currently totalling ten satellites. Three of these are radar satellites – the rest are optical. The two categories of satellites complement each other. Airbus DS plans to have 14 satellites in orbit by 2022, with the addition of the Pléiades Neo constellation, made up of four identical satellites, delivering 30 cm resolution imagery. They will all be linked to communications relay satellites by laser communication systems, will give much greater responsiveness to customer demand and provide much more imagery.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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