Chris Forrester — Ottawa-based Telesat is having a tough time. Overall revenues are down (27% year-on-year) and CEO Dan Goldberg is very much betting the farm on its upcoming Lightspeed LEO constellation starting to play a meaningful role in Telesat’s revenue mix. March 17 saw Goldberg announce some significant changes to the Lightspeed fleet, adding an extra Ka-band military frequencies to the fleet’s technology.
An added 500 MHz of spectrum will be incorporated onto the first 156 satellites “to meet growing requirements of allied defence users,” says Telesat. The satellites are being built by MDA Space and the new functionality will not impact deliveries of the craft, says Telesat.
However, whether the changes are officially impacting delivery dates or not, Telesat is nevertheless slipping its planned service introduction to the spring of 2028, and some months later than initially expected.
“[The new] Mil-Ka is immediately adjacent to the commercial Ka-band spectrum used by Telesat Lightspeed, which allows the addition to be made without adversely impacting Telesat’s schedule. The first two Telesat Lightspeed production satellites will be launched in December 2026, followed by a high cadence launch schedule throughout 2027,” said Telesat.
“We’re seeing very significant global demand for a Mil‑Ka LEO satellite capability as governments respond to recent geopolitical developments and recognize the clear operational advantages offered by advanced LEO constellations,” stated Goldberg. “The addition of Mil-Ka to Telesat Lightspeed will result in a substantial increase to the current global supply of Mil-Ka capacity. Moreover, by integrating it with the already highly advanced Telesat Lightspeed network, the Telesat Mil-Ka capability is expected to have meaningfully superior performance characteristics relative to the Mil-Ka platforms that allied governments have historically relied upon. This is an important development and one that underscores Telesat’s decades-long commitment to support the mission critical requirements of allied defence users,” stated Telesat.
The addition of military spectrum will clearly help Lightspeed for Canada’s own military, but it will also appeal to potential overseas customers. There are a number of reasons why Lightspeed, despite the proliferation of rival LEO systems, should be successful.
First up is a seemingly insatiable desire from nations for a wholly independent supply of satellite connectivity. For example, and even though Europe is moving ahead with its private/public IRIS2 (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) mega-constellation and specifically designed to reduce dependency on non-EU systems, the SpaceRISE consortium will deploy some 300 satellites (mostly LEO and some MEO) and working with geostationary craft from SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat which are also the main members of the consortium.
IRIS2 is looking to be deployed around 2030 and very much targeting military and governmental usage. But despite its presence in IRIS2 Germany’s army wants its own dedicated satellite system and is prepared to spend to achieve independence. Armin Fleischmann, (head of the German Bundeswehr’s Department of Cyber and Information Domain (CID) Planning and Digitalization) says the army needs 100-200 LEO satellites by 2029 to provide high-speed, secure, and resilient communication for troops, vehicles, and naval vessels. Moreover, Germany is reported to be prepared to spend up to €10 billion on its dedicated LEO project and as part of an overall space budget said to be in the range of €35-€41 billion.
Germany is not alone, and performing a superb sales effort for Telesat is Canada’s prime minster Mark Carney. A recent trip to Australia involved a March 5 pitch to Australia’s parliament and saying that Australia could join the Telesat Lightspeed system. “We need coalitions now to address immediate challenges,” Carney said. “The fact is that many countries now are concluding that they need greater strategic autonomy. This impulse is understandable. When the rules no longer protect you, you must defend yourself. Today, sovereignty requires reliable access to space-based communications and storage. vaccines, semiconductors, payment systems and capital,” he stressed.
“This creates enormous opportunities for cooperation between our two countries. [W]e are already cooperating with Australia on your world-leading over-the-horizon radar. And we are activity exploring new opportunities to protect our vast territories together,” Carney added, “As we have seen in this war in Ukraine, satellite communications are now a fundamental requirement for security. A Canadian-based constellation of LEO satellites will launch next year, providing reliable and secure global communications. We’re working with other like-minded partners who possess similar capabilities to build out a deep, resilient, sovereign system that we can all share, and we can each control in our territories.”
What he didn’t say was that in choosing Telesat, Australia could join the Canadians in their ‘Elbows Up’ strategy against President Donald Trump and seeking space defense independence from the US. But his message was clear, and far from subtle.
Carney was then reported to be making much the same pitch to Japanese and British military interests as well as Norway where he participated in a Canada-Norway Summit on March 15. Carney was asked whether Canada would stand besides its fellow NATO member Denmark over Trump-led tensions over Greenland, which he said would see Canada stand “four-square” alongside Denmark. Space Norway had confirmed on March 11 last year that it had decided in favour of Lightspeed, but more could come.
This past week he has been in London discussing “collective defence” issues with Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer (and meeting King Charles). A press statement said that Carney and Starmer had discussed “deep cooperation” and “partnership” opportunities between the U.K. and Canada.
Of course, these talks might lead nowhere, but you cannot blame Carney for doing his best to aid and assist Telesat, and local Canadian jobs and even prestige as well as satellite technology independence.
Dan Goldberg deserves the last word. He told analysts on Telesat’s conference call that his initial expectation was for Lightspeed to enter full global commercial service around the end of next year. “It now looks like we’ll enter service about three months later than that. Around the end of Q1, 2028”.
Goldberg added: “I’ve said on previous calls that we’ve become increasingly bullish on the government and defense opportunity for Telesat Lightspeed, and the trends there only continue to get better. The geopolitical environment is driving once in a generation increases in defense investments by allied countries globally, with defense organizations increasingly focused on the need for mission-critical, resilient, reliable, high throughput, and low latency satellite communication services from dependable providers. Indeed, the government of Canada, in its recently released defense industrial strategy, identified satellite communications as a critical sovereign capability, pledging in the first instance to procure these important services from Canadian companies like Telesat in order to meet its and Canada’s allies’ sovereignty and security requirements with the Arctic a particularly important area of focus. Canada certainly isn’t alone in identifying the need for advanced LEO services for defense and sovereignty purposes.”
