Leading technology solutions company, Thales, has announced the expansion of its partnership with satellite communications expert, Iridium, as the newest Iridium Certus aviation service provider. With its FlytLINK, Thales already offers the avionics that use the Iridium Certus service, and will now be able to offer both the Iridium Certus terminals and Iridium Certus connectivity services to business jets, commercial aircraft, rotorcraft, general aviation, military and UAVs.
Thales will begin delivering the new FlytLINK terminal and antenna to customers in the first half of 2020, being first to market with an Iridium Certus aviation solution capable of 352 Kbps transmit and 704 Kbps receive speeds. It will provide new generation, truly global connectivity for cockpit and cabin communications using the L-band broadband platform. This includes a hybrid FlytLINK solution that combines Iridium Certus capabilities with Iridium’s traditional narrow-band services which will be available with its initial release.
Its safety features include support for current and next generation Air Traffic Control systems, high quality voice, ACARS and IP data up to 704 kbps. It also supports electronic flight bag pairing, real-time weather, secure pilot and crew Wi-Fi access and enhanced calling.
With their initial FlytLINK terminal for Iridium Certus, Thales has taken the proven reliability of Iridium’s existing safety services and paired it with the increased speed and power of the Iridium Certus service. According to Tim Last, Vice President and GM of Aviation, Iridium, this strategy enables full adoption of the new FlytLINK terminal, with safety services capabilities using Iridium Certus once those receive the necessary regulatory approvals.
Thales and Iridium continue to strengthen their partnership as Thales is the only company manufacturing solutions for land, maritime and aviation that use Iridium Certus services. The ThalesLINK product family provides users with low latency and the fastest Iridium Certus speeds. Thales is delivering the future of connectivity to customers, today.
