AthenAFidus, an ItalIan-French telecommunIcatIons system

by Francesca Pieralice

Athena-Fidus (Access on THeatres and European Nations for Allied forces - French Italian Dual Use Satellite) is a satellite telecommunications system for dual-use broadband communications services. The satellite was launched in 2014 and has an expected operating lifespan of over 15 years.

Developed by the Italian Space Agency and the Centre national d'études spatiales (Cnes) as part of cooperation agreements signed by the Italian and French Ministries of Defence and the two countries' space agencies, the program is dedicated to both military and civil governmental uses, such as emergency management of both natural and man-made disasters, civil protection operations, surveillance and security, and the management and monitoring of critical infrastructure.

The system is based on a geostationary satellite operating in the Ka/EHF band with payloads dedicated to Italian and French national needs. For civilian users, the Italian Space Agency – ASI - has a payload on board the satellite operating in Ka-band and a ground infrastructure (gateway) located at the Fucino Space Center.

The Italian capacity of Athena-Fidus has supported and continues to do so, various experimental projects for the use of satellite telecommunications for governmental purposes, such as the European Commission's CloseEye project for maritime surveillance, or telemedicine applications in cooperation with regional companies for health emergencies, or within the framework of the ESA Artes projects for the development of integrated applications that Italy finances.

Looking at the immediate future, Athena-Fidus system represents in Europe a potential contributor of Italy to the European Govsatcom, which will be based on the concept of pooling & sharing satellite resources made available by all EU Member States. Govsatcom will offer European governmental users a secure and resilient satellite connectivity service. In a framework of cooperation and participation, and from the point of view of pooling & sharing resources, it will also be able to support Member Countries that do not have their own national systems. Moreover, it will also play a key role in operations of common interest at the European level, e.g. for European External Action Service (Eeas), Common Security and Defence Policy, or European civil protection.

Govsatcom represents the first building block of the EU Secure Connectivity program, which will consist of a multi-orbital constellation of telecommunications satellites.