Skynet 5 decision

BAE SYSTEMS PLC
26 February 2002

26 February 2002

BAE SYSTEMS WELCOMES SKYNET 5 DECISION

BAE SYSTEMS welcomes today's decision by the UK Ministry of Defence to award the
Skynet 5 Preferred Bidder contract to Paradigm Secure Communications, whose
parent companies are BAE SYSTEMS and EADS.

Paradigm Secure Communications will provide secure global military satellite
communications (milsatcoms) to the UK armed forces in the form of a service
provision contract. Worth around £2 billion over two decades, this service will
be procured under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

The Skynet 5 contract calls for Paradigm to deliver milsatcoms initially through
the transfer of ownership and operation of the existing Skynet 4 infrastructure
and then by incorporating new Skynet 5 satellites and associated ground segment
from the middle of this decade.

Under contract to Paradigm, Astrium is responsible for the replacement of the
existing Skynet 4 ground and space assets by a new, integrated Skynet 5 system.
Astrium is a joint venture owned 75% by EADS and 25% by BAE SYSTEMS.

ends



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