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Secure satellite communications for EU governmental actors

Identifying what the end users need and expect from satellite communications is a long-term venture that has just reached an important milestone. On 2 March, Frontex attended the ENTRUSTED Live Demonstration Event in Rome and joined the project consortium to showcase and discuss the practical results of their work at a live demonstration event. The project was carried out under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and focused on end users’ requirements related to secure satellite communications services (SatCom). Its objective was also to create a research and innovation roadmap targeting user technologies in particular.

During the hybrid event, the results were grouped in several operational scenarios:

  • access to secure SatCom services for both a land vehicle via on-the-move technology and a fixed ground terminal in an emergency theatre,
  • simulations of a natural disaster and an armed conflict, highlighting the secure capabilities of the GOVSAT-1 satellite,
  • multilateral, highly secured video conference for diplomacy,
  • EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) military operation,
  • telemedicine.

The demonstrations allowed to discuss different aspects of secure satellite connectivity, share experience, and draw attention to more specific user expectations.

Project partners

Frontex was one of the external stakeholders/collaborators in ENTRUSTED, a project that gathered 19 partners in total, among others EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), Directorate-General for Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Defence Agency (EDA), European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), European Union Satellite Centre (EU SatCen). Frontex’s Research and Innovation Unit supported this endeavour by providing the project consortium with the consolidated input on the needs and requirements related to secure satellite communication, extracted from the European Border and Coast Guard (EBCG) community.