[SatNews] The go ahead has been given for this Company to start their engineering work on a new satellite...

COM DEV International Ltd. (TSX: CDV) has been awarded an Authorization To Proceed (ATP) contract to provide equipment for a new commercial satellite. The initial release, which permits engineering activity to begin and production to start, is valued in excess of US$1.5 million. It is anticipated that the final contract will be in place early May 2011, and will be in excess of US$5 million. COM DEV will provide Ka- and Ku-band switches, multiplexers, and filters for the satellite, which is designed for mobile communications. Work on the contract will be carried out at the Company's facility in Cambridge, Ontario with completion expected by the middle of its 2012 fiscal year.

"We are pleased to continue our long relationship with this important customer and the addition of this order to our healthy backlog shows that COM DEV continues to lead in this market where the demand for the best value products is taking on an ever increasing importance," said Michael Pley, CEO of COM DEV. "Requirements for this satellite program involve a rigorous testing regime which plays well into COM DEV's strengths of having established space test resources that are enhanced by our proprietary CODE ONE test system."