Telespazio Selects Hughes HeloSat for Airborne Satellite Communications

Solution Installed on Leonardo's Helicopters will Serve Commercial and Military Missions across Italy and Europe

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Sep 20, 2021, 08:00 ET

GERMANTOWN, Md., Sept. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), an innovator in satellite and multi-transport technologies and networks for 50 years, today announced that Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), has selected the Hughes HeloSat™ solution for satellite communications (SATCOM) for Leonardo's helicopters. The solution combines the Hughes HM100 gateway and the HM400 modem for SATCOM on-the-move with technical support and systems integration. Once installed on helicopters like the Leonardo SW-4 Solo optionally piloted / rotorcraft uncrewed system, HeloSat will enable connectivity through-the-rotor using the Athena-Fidus Ka-band satellite capacity via the Telespazio ground station in Fucino, Italy.

"Building on a decades-long collaboration with Telespazio, last year we demonstrated our HeloSat technology with no packet loss through the blades of a Leonardo AW139 helicopter; now we are delivering a turnkey solution," said Rick Lober, vice president and general manager, Hughes Defense. "With low size, weight and power, HeloSat is the only reliable, validated, wideband Beyond-Line-of-Sight SATCOM capability for helicopters to transmit uninterrupted, full-motion video in real time."

"For the fixed-wing and rotary-wing avionics market, Telespazio has chosen to create a technological team of companies with the best solutions on the market. The approach is to solve all the issues related to an avionic satellite solution by providing: teleport services, on-board technologies, ground technologies and space capacity on satellites most suited to the proposal. When we looked for connectivity under the rotor, we turned to our strategic partner Hughes for the proof of concept, and we found an excellent solution that we can't wait to bring to market," said Alessandro Caranci, vice president and head of Satcom Line of Business, Telespazio. "Hughes technology, advanced waveform and in-flight experience deliver multi-megabit-per-second speeds through rotary blades without packet loss - a competitive advantage for military and commercial helicopter applications."

At the core of the HeloSat solution, the Hughes HM System features an open standards architecture that enables resilient, cost-effective SATCOM aboard airplanes, UAVs, ships, and land-mobile platforms in addition to rotary wing aircraft. The system has been deployed for military operations worldwide, powering applications including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR); search and rescue; emergency and disaster response; firefighting and VIP transport.

For more information about Hughes HeloSat, visit the Hughes website.

About Telespazio
Telespazio is a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%) and one of the main operators in the world in the field of satellite solutions and services. With the skills acquired in 60 years of activity in the institutional and commercial market, Telespazio has an international network of space centers and teleports (that of Fucino, one of the most important in the world for civil uses) and thanks to the participation in numerous space programs such as Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus and COSMO-SkyMed, Telespazio places itself on the reference markets with the role of service provider and large mission integrator, offering services for the upstream, midstream and downstream segments and guaranteeing so are the objectives of space missions. www.telespazio.com

About Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), an innovator in satellite and multi-transport technologies and networks for 50 years, provides broadband equipment and services; managed services featuring smart, software-defined networking; and end-to-end network operation for millions of consumers, businesses, governments and communities worldwide. The Hughes flagship Internet service, HughesNet®, connects more than 1.5 million subscribers across the Americas, and the Hughes JUPITER™ System powers Internet access for tens of millions more worldwide. Hughes supplies more than half the global satellite terminal market to leading satellite operators, in-flight service providers, mobile network operators and military customers. A managed network services provider, Hughes supports nearly 500,000 enterprise sites with its HughesON™ portfolio of wired and wireless solutions. Headquartered in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes is owned by EchoStar. To learn more, visit www.hughes.com or follow @HughesConnects on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About EchoStar
EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a premier global provider of satellite communication solutions. Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., and conducting business around the globe, EchoStar is a pioneer in secure communications technologies through its Hughes Network Systems and EchoStar Satellite Services business segments. For more information, visit www.echostar.com. Follow @EchoStar on Twitter.

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC