Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo and Thales, has been awarded a multi-year contract with the OCCAR , which acted on the mandate of the Italian and French Defence, for the “In Service Support” operational phase of the MUSIS-CIL programme.

The Multinational Space Based Imaging System – Common Interoperability Layer (MUSIS-CIL) is resulting from the cooperation between the Italian and French governments, to allow the interconnection and federation of two important space infrastructures for Earth observation, the French Composante Spatiale Optique (CSO) and the Italian COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, and orchestrate their respective joint use by the two countries.

For the implementation phase of the MUSIS-CIL system, the OCCAR – in the name and on behalf of the Italian and French Ministries of Defence – had signed a contract in 2019 with a Consortium consisting of Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space Italia, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), with Telespazio as its subcontractor.

In the new “In Service Support” contract, the MUSIS International Industrial Consortium, created by Telespazio and Airbus Defence and Space – Temporary Grouping of Companies under Italian law (RTI) led by Telespazio as mandataria, with Airbus Defence and Space as mandante –, will be responsible for providing the two countries’ Ministries of Defence with logistical support services. These services include operational training for the use of MUSIS-CIL and system maintenance throughout all the expected life cycle of 15 years.

The ceremony for Contract signing and for the first three years of service was held on 24 June in Bonn (Germany), in the OCCAR headquarters. The OCCAR-EA Director, Joachim Sucker, and the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales of Telespazio, Giuseppe Lenzo, signed during the ceremony, with the attendance of the representatives of the involved parties.

The aim of the MUSIS programme is to provide France and Italy with easy, reliable and secure access to the satellite capabilities of the two space systems, CSO and COSMO-SkyMed, simplifying satellite programming and image production.

The COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation is a constellation financed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with funds allocated by the Italian Ministry of University and Research alongside the Italian Ministry of Defence. It will guarantee the operational continuity of SAR (Synthetic-Aperture Radar) Earth observation services provided by the first-generation COSMO-SkyMed satellites launched into orbit starting from 2007.