Paris, December 19, 2005 – Alcatel Alenia Space today announced the acceptance by the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) of the Syracuse 3 spaceborne military communications system. Alenia Alenia Space has qualified the Syracuse 3 system two months after the Syracuse 3A satellite launch. Initial operation of the satellite telecommunications capabilities began mid-November.
The full-scale system tests used the Syracuse 3A satellite, the control and management center at Maisons Laffitte, the France South ground station in Bram, and other armed forces ground stations in France. System performance tests, carried out by DGA’s technical experts and coordinated by CELAR (electronic warfare engineering center), met all specifications.
The qualification system review was successfully held on December 7, 2005, enabling DGA to deliver the Syracuse 3 system to the French armed forces by the end of the year, as committed.
“The Syracuse program has been both a major technical challenge, and above all a highly rich and unifying experience for our teams,” said Pascale Sourisse, President and CEO of Alcatel Alenia Space. “We are particularly proud of our ability to keep pace with the very tight deadlines for all phases of this program, from the launch of Syracuse 3A to today’s qualification. Furthermore, our teams continue to be heavily involved in the integration of Syracuse 3B, scheduled for launch in mid-2006.”
Syracuse 3 is a cutting-edge military satcom system, designed to meet the needs of France and allied armed forces for the next ten years. NATO’s C3 agency recently chose the Syracuse system, together with Skynet (Britain) and Sicral (Italy), to provide SHF (super high frequency) communications for member countries, within the scope of the post-2000 NATO Satcom program.
Alcatel Alenia Space is the leading European supplier of satellite-based solutions for defense.
About Alcatel Alenia Space
Alcatel Alenia Space, leader in satellite systems and at the forefront of orbit infrastructures, brings together the vast experience and know-how of Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio to form a new leading force in European space technology. Alcatel Alenia Space represents a worldwide standard for space development that impacts everybody’s future: from navigation to telecommunications, from meteorology to environmental monitoring, from defence to science and observation. An affiliate of Alcatel (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%), Alcatel Alenia Space generated an estimated turnover of 1.8 billion euros with around 7,200 people in 2004.
About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks; applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.3 billion and 56,000 employees in 2004, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.
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