Telesat said Tuesday it has signed a $2.3-billion contract with Canada’s Defence Investment Agency for its Lightspeed communications satellites to deliver military Ka-band (Mil-Ka) Arctic connectivity to the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), effective in 2028.
The contract, under the Enhanced Satellite Communications Project-Polar program, includes two five-year option periods valued at approximately $200 million each, bringing the life of the contract to 15 years and the total value to $2.7 billion, a press release said.
“This is the largest contract in Telesat’s history and will significantly expand the scale and capacity of the Telesat Lightspeed network, positioning the company for accelerated growth,” the release said.
“This agreement allows Telesat to immediately expand its Telesat Lightspeed network by 69 fully funded satellites, bringing the initial constellation from 156 to 225 satellites, all to be built by MDA Space, with both commercial and Mil-Ka capacity. The expansion will be funded through milestone-based payments from the Government of Canada starting in Q3 2026.”
The company’s President and CEO Dan Goldberg said the contract “ensures the Canadian Armed Forces will have access to secure, resilient and sovereign connectivity years earlier than originally planned, at a great value for money, and with a scalable architecture designed to meet future global operational requirements and support interoperability with Canada’s allies and partners.
“High speed and low latency connectivity is critical for modern military forces, and Telesat Lightspeed is expected to be foundational for future CAF and allied governments’ operations.”
The company said it has invested $2.7 billion so far into its constellation, with the expected investment toward all 225 satellites being $7 billion.
