Spain and Luxembourg will join the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy in a collaborative effort to provide NATO with satellite communications services.
Starting in 2025, Madrid and Luxembourg will start working on the NATO Satcom Services 6th Generation project, a $1.07 billion program designed to meet the alliance’s military satcom requirements through 2034.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Spain and Luxembourg’s participation in the NSS6G was approved when the NATO Communications and Information Agency and representatives of the six countries met in early June.
With the two nations’ involvement in the effort, NATO is expected to further improve the resiliency of its satcom capability, said Nusret Yilmaz, the satcom business unit owner within the NCIA.
“NATO kind of makes sure this additional capacity is taken care of from the space segment perspective,” Yilmaz explained.
Mike Dean, the satcom chief at DOD’s Chief Information Office, added that the expanded project membership will further bolster the existing cooperation with the NSS6G.
Managed by the NCIA since 2019, the NSS6G project supplies NATO with a resilient and flexible satcom capability to advance the organization’s operations and exercises over the next decade.