Iridium inks 7-year deal with military, Memorandum of Understanding with OneWeb

by Chris Gebhardt

Just eight months after completing an ambitious, uninterrupted service replacement of their 66 interconnected satellite constellation in Low Earth Orbit, Iridium Communications has announced an unprecedented seven year, fixed-price contract with the U.S. military for voice and text communication and tracking services.

The company also revealed a Memorandum of Understanding with OneWeb, partnering with the space-based internet service company to look for ways the two communication platforms complement each other and could potentially be packaged together for customers.

Iridium and the U.S. military:

The contract announced yesterday by Iridium Communications is for a seven year, $738.5 million (USD) contract with the U.S. military to provide voice and text communication and tracking services for various assets at any point on the globe.

The contract comes five months after the expiration of the previous five-year, fixed price contract that went month-to-month this past April. 

Unprecedented is the length of the new contract at seven years, which Iridium CEO Matt Desch says highlights the government’s confidence in Iridium and reflects the U.S. military’s satisfaction with the innovation and services built into the new Iridium NEXT constellation.

“I think [the NEXT satellites] played a big role; I don’t think the government would have come to trust us and would certainly have never done a seven-year contract with us without the NEXT satellites,” said Mr. Desch to NASASpaceflight in a one-on-one interview.

“The previous – the original – network lasted twenty years.  That’s exactly what the military relies on: longevity.”

While the contract itself isn’t a new “win” for Iridium, the company has been working sole-source contracts with the military for close to 19 years, Mr. Desch related that “the U.S. government realized the power of an inter-satellite connected network that could cover 100% of the globe” years ago.  “And they’ve invested a lot of money and innovation into the network” over the years.

“This [seven year contract] is a demonstration of how much they value the unique capabilities we give to them.  And it speaks to the relationship and the approaches they’ve had and demonstrates that they don’t see anything coming … that replicates the services we offer.

“And so they’ve locked down the ability to use the services and continue to innovate with us.”

While the seven year, fixed-price contract will give the U.S. military unlimited access to portions of the Iridium NEXT network in terms of voice and text communication and tracking, it will not provide unlimited access to the newly enabled Iridium Certus feature for broadband capabilities. 

An overlapping coverage map of the Iridium NEXT constellation. (Credit: Iridium Communications)

The reason for this is twofold: 

  1. the government’s own gateways and connection portals to that platform are not yet ready, and
  2. providing unlimited access to the broadband service would very quickly use up the entire capacity of the network in that arena and leave nothing for the commercial community.

But that doesn’t mean the U.S. military isn’t planning to make use of Iridium Certus (the NEXT constellation’s broadband service).

“They’re planning to use it.  We’re just not going to supply that with this particular contract,” related Mr. Desch.  “We’ll be offering [access to the Certus feature] incrementally, but not unlimited, in a separate agreement on top of the $738 million contract.”

All of these services will pull directly from the Iridium NEXT constellation, as they have for several months now under the previous month-to-month contract. 

Presently, the Iridium NEXT constellation is fully functional, with the entire Iridium constellation of 66 operational satellites now completely on the NEXT series of spacecraft. 

All but one of the original Iridium satellites have been deorbited to date, with the final one serving as an on-orbit back up until its replacement NEXT spare completes a drift over into the correct orbital plane.

An original Iridium satellite enjoys retirement on a sunny beach. (Credit: Iridium Communications)

Once that drift is complete, the last original Iridium satellite will be deorbited sometime in November.

Memorandum of Understanding with OneWeb:

Just one day after announcing the military contract award, Iridium followed that up with yet another announcement, this time in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the space-based internet company OneWeb.

This is the first time that two Low Earth Orbit operators have collaborated to deliver services in the L-band and Ku-band frequencies.

The OneWeb satellite internet constellation began launching in February 2019, with the first six satellites launched into orbit by a Soyuz ST-B rocket from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

Exactly what this MoU will lead to is unknown, with Mr. Desch noting that “Right now it’s still open to what it might be.  It might be a technical integration of the terminals. It might be a commercial integration where there are two separate antennas but it’s a package service that’s more effective to customers who can buy services together .  It could also be an operational integration where things could be activated and built upon if both the services were bought at the same time.”

Ultimately, Iridium Communications made clear that what comes from this MoU is really up to OneWeb and what they learn of their customers’ needs as they continue to build out their constellation in the coming years.

What is clear is that the agreement will largely focus on the relationship between the Ku-band applications of the OneWeb broadband satellites and the L-band capabilities of the Iridium Certus feature of the NEXT constellation – complementary communication bands that provide different targeted services from one another on the two respective platforms.

The arrangement between the two companies is also not exclusive but, as Mr. Desch said, “sort of signals that we might be doing a more direct partnership with OneWeb and other companies in the future.”

When asked why the agreement was specifically made with OneWeb as opposed to the other space-based internet mega constellations either currently being launched (Starlink) or actively being developed and/or tested on-orbit (Telesat), Mr. Desch said that it was because OneWeb desired the collaboration and really pushed for it.

“OneWeb wanted to do it.  They were by far the most aggressive, and they helped put this together.”

Mr. Desch also made a point of noting Iridium’s good relationship with the other carriers building space-based mega constellations for internet services and said that “if one of them wants to work with us on a joint product, we’d be glad to consider working with them as well.”

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