WASHINGTON — Canada’s Defense Investment Agency (DIA) has awarded Ottawa-based Telesat a 2.3 billion CAD ($1.6 billion) contract to provide secure military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) in the Arctic region, the government announced today.
Under the Enhanced Satellite Communications Project – Polar (ESCP-P), Telesat will deliver military Ka-band connectivity for a period of 5 years, with two additional five-year options valued at 214 million CAD and 218 million CAD, the company said in a press release today.
“Strengthening Northern and Arctic sovereignty is essential to our national security and is a priority for the Government of Canada,” Stephen Fuhr, secretary of state for defense procurement, said in a statement.
The deal covers an expansion of the company’s Telesat Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) network by 69 satellites, going from 156 in production today to 225 — with Canadian satellite maker MDA subcontracted for the new birds, according to Telesat. MILSATCOM services to the Canadian Armed Forces, with coverage ranging from 65 to 90 degrees North latitude, are scheduled to begin in 2028.
In addition, according to the Telesat release, a separate agreement between DIA and the company will cover “end-to-end network integration services — including user terminals, ground and control infrastructure, training, and support services.”
The contract with Telesat is only the first step in a wider Canadian plan to develop a secure MILSATCOM grid over the Arctic and the far north.
The Defence Ministry, via the Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) office, last December signed a “strategic partnership agreement” with the Canadian government, Telesat and MDA for the multi-phase ESCP-P project.
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“The Strategic Partner model is an innovative approach to defence procurement that streamlines processes and accelerates timelines while leveraging industry expertise in the design, development and delivery of complex defence capabilities,” the Canadian government announcement explained.
As the next step in the ESCP-P effort, the government is in negotiations with the two firms for a future ultra-high frequency (UHF) and X-band constellation in medium Earth orbit, the announcement said, with MDA Space serving as the prime contractor “responsible for end-to-end mission delivery,” and Telesat as the subcontractor.
Establishing secure communications networks for military forces, however, is a big challenge in the High North. Establishing fiber optic cable and cell networks face challenges due to harsh weather conditions; and traditional SATCOM based on large satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit also have difficulties due to the rugged landscape blocking signals and the limited polar coverage that orbit can provide.
Telesat’s Lightspeed network will overcome those issues because it is configured as “a global, low-latency mesh network leveraging optical intersatellite links,” a company spokesperson told Breaking Defense today.
“All 225 satellites will have 4 optical links, we will have 900 OISLs [optical intersatellite links] in space that are compliant with SDA’s [the US Space Development Agency] standard. This creates a global, self-healing mesh network ensuring data severity, resiliency, and user-to-user connectivity,” the spokesperson said.
Further, the spokesperson said Telesat Lightspeed “is the perfect solution to provide backup connectivity in the case of an undersea fibre cut, which is becoming an increasingly common event.”
Jessica West, a long-time space analyst at Canada’s Project Ploughshares, agreed.
“Lightspeed is designed as a mesh network, with optical links allowing traffic to be routed between satellites without depending on a single terrestrial pathway. That creates more options for maintaining communications if ground infrastructure, including subsea cables, is disrupted or unavailable,” she said in an email.
Lt. Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet, head of the Royal Canadian Air Force, said today in an online statement that the ESCP-P network will improve the military’s “ability to connect, command and coordinate in the Arctic and other high-latitude regions,” as well as contribute to the ongoing modernization of the bilateral US-Canada North American Defense Command.
“Secure, sovereign communications are essential to the Canadian Armed Forces’ ability to operate across Canada’s North, work seamlessly with our allies and partners, and contribute to continental defence,” she said.
West said the ESCP-P effort is significant because it reflects “a broader shift in both Canadian defence and space strategy” now underway.
“Both space and the Arctic are now central defence priorities, and investments like this connect sovereignty to resilience,” she said. “Because Lightspeed is also a commercial system, the investment is building resilience through dual-use infrastructure rather than a standalone military constellation. The larger significance, then, is not simply that Canada is buying more satellite capacity, but that it is investing in a more resilient, Canadian-controlled, dual-use commercial communications architecture for defence and Arctic operations.”
The Arctic has become a region of increasing geopolitical competition, in particular as climate change begins to melt the Arctic Sea ice — shortening the Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage between Europe and Asia, and opening up the potential for new oil and gas extraction.
For example, NATO over the past year has been moving to enhance its military presence in the far north due to fears that both Russia and China are preparing their militaries to support expanding sovereignty claims in the region. Seven of the 32 alliance members are Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United States.
“The Arctic is a gateway to the North Atlantic, hosting vital trade, transport and communication links between North America and Europe,” according to a July 24 NATO fact sheet.
“It is also an area of increasing strategic competition. Russia has significantly increased its military activity in the region — setting up a new Arctic Command, opening new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites (including airfields and deep-water ports), and testing novel weapons systems. China’s interest in the Arctic is also growing, as Beijing seeks to gain access to energy, critical minerals and sea lines of communication,” the fact sheet added.
In response, according to the fact sheet, NATO in February launched Arctic Sentry, a military mission designed to “strengthen deterrence and defence” across the region. Then in June, the alliance established the multinational Forward Land Forces (FLF) Finland, a new multinational battlegroup led by Sweden with Finnish support, and operating along NATO’s northeastern flank.