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RHEA, neXat and ST Engineering iDirect Start Product Phase for Secure Satcom Service

2 August 2023

The BeSecured Pooling & Sharing Service project has reached a new milestone with the start of the Product Phase for this secure satellite communication services pooling and sharing platform.

Started on April 2023, the Product Phase is expected to result in the development of a product ready for operations by the end of 2024 and commercialization in early 2025.

Led by RHEA Group, with neXat as service provider and in cooperation with ST Engineering iDirect, this platform will address governments’ and institutions’ needs for reliable and secure satellite communication services.

The BeSecured Pooling & Sharing Service (BeSecured PSS) project has entered into the Product Development phase, which will lead to the commercialization of the service in 2025, following successful completion of the definition and technology phase. The project is co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under its programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications (ARTES) with the support of the Belgian Science Policy Office (Belspo). 

Initiated in October 2020, the BeSecured PSS project will provide an easy-to-use pooling and sharing platform to order satellite data communication services meeting high levels of reliability, security and availability. The project combines the expertise of RHEA Group, neXat and ST Engineering iDirect, each providing different components of the system:

Project lead, user mission configurator and security operations centre – RHEA Group

Pooling and sharing core platform – neXat

Satellite virtual hub – ST Engineering iDirect

The BeSecured PSS platform will provide a way for end-users in different security domains and regions to access pooled satellite communications capacity from multiple satellite operators via a single, user-friendly front-end. The platform will prioritize the service requests and match them against the communications available from different satellites, operators and service providers, efficiently and with appropriate levels of security.

Matteo Merialdo, Business Director Security Engineering and Products, RHEA Group, commented: “RHEA has been developing security services and solutions for over 12 years, enabling the secure design, operation and utilization of space systems. For BeSecured PSS, we are providing our expertise to ensure the service’s level of security meets the project’s primary objective of delivering a secure pooling and sharing capability, which is vital for governmental and institutional users.”

neXat’s Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder, Fulvio Sansone, added: “BeSecured PSS is a key cornerstone in the technological roadmap of neXat in our efforts to serve more demanding customers in terms of service security, availability and reliability. The results of the project will be used to target some specific market segments like civil security practitioners and other governmental users, but is also a key component in our path toward being part of the large European projects aimed at providing Europe with sovereign, next generation, secure satellite communications services.”

Geert Adams, VP R&D Programs at ST Engineering iDirect, said: “Secure satellite connectivity is a top priority for both governmental and civil users in today’s evolving environment. We are progressively introducing our virtual satellite hub to fit seamlessly into pooling and sharing services such as BeSecured, enabling users to access the connectivity services they require, and to be safe in the knowledge that those services are both reliable and secure whenever they are required.” 

Reliable and secure satellite communications are increasingly needed to support crisis management and emergency response. The European Commission (EC) and ESA are setting up major programmes, such as ESA GOVSATCOM Precursor and the EU Secured Connectivity Programme IRIS2, to support industry in building the necessary capabilities for secure satellite communications.

Most of the European satellite operators and service providers are participating in these programmes, acknowledging the benefits of pooling their service offerings and enlarging their service footprint to create an even more vibrant satellite communications service provisioning market, in Europe and globally.

The product phase is expected to result in a product ready for operations by the end of 2024.