In the face of persistent geopolitical unrest and conflict, the need for sovereign, secure satellite communications has become acute for governments around the world.

Some, like the European Commission, plan to address the need by building out a global constellation of non-geostationary orbit satellites — in this case, a laser-linked multi-orbit network for the EU, comprising Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites.

But such a scheme is simply not practical for many individual nations. Instead, geostationary (GEO) satellites, including the smallsat variety which can ably provide focused capacity and coverage for a single country or region, are proving to be the logical choice.

That is one reason why San Francisco-based Astranis and Swiss firm Swissto12 are enjoying strong momentum in the market. Both companies build smaller, software-defined GEO satellites, the former as a vertically integrated player that also operates its MicroGEO satellites on behalf of its clients, and the latter as a spacecraft supplier to major satellite operators.

Counting the U.S. military, Taiwan and Oman among its customers, Astranis in May announced it had raised $450 million in new capital, bringing its total raised to more than $1.2 billion.

“The world is more contested and volatile than it once was. Sovereign, secure communications infrastructure is more critical than ever,” Astranis co-founder and CEO John Gedmark declared at the time.

For its part, Swissto12 on 16 July announced it has closed a $70 million Series C after achieving $140 million in revenue in 2025, $500 million-plus contracted orders, and an exceptional 110% compound annual growth rate.

To date, the firm has secured seven contracts for its HummingSat GEO smallsat with leading global satellite operators, including SES and Viasat. It is notably building the I-8 satellites that will support and add resilience to Viasat’s L-band safety services, which are used by airlines and government.

“Space is increasingly recognized as essential infrastructure for the global economy. In this expanding market, our solutions across payload and satellite lines are creating significant new opportunities for customers,” Swissto12 CEO Emile de Rijk said in a statement.

The rise in demand for sovereign communications also spells fresh opportunities for GEO-capable hardware manufacturers, including antenna-makers that support aero applications. Let’s take a look at a few of the players.

Qest

German firm Qest’s Ku-band gimbaled antenna is presently utilized by Anuvu for its airline clients and, interestingly, has since last year supported inflight connectivity for Southwest Airlines via Anuvu’s two MicroGEO satellites, as made and operated by Astranis.

Now, Qest is developing multi-orbit phased array antenna architectures, including for partner Telesat as it rolls out the Lightspeed LEO constellation, and as part of a European Space Agency (ESA)-funded project.

Celebrating the ESA program on LinkedIn, Qest said: “By enabling reliable communication across GEO and LEO satellite networks, this innovation marks a major step toward global connectivity with strong efficiency and resilience.”

While the project targets commercial aviation as the initial global entry market, the core antenna technology is designed to be modular, enabling adaptation for various airborne applications such as governmental aircraft, ESA said.

ThinKom Solutions

With strong placement in the commercial aircraft fleet, ThinKom Solutions’ ThinAir product line of VICTS mechanically steered phased array antennas has seen over 2,000 aircraft installations, most recently on Saudia’s A321XLR. But the hardware is also accustomed to working on very secure government-owned and operated satellite systems. It is, for instance, installed on SNC’s RAPCON-X intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft and the U.S. Air Force’s E4-B doomsday fleet.

Now the Hawthorne, California-based company is exploring how it might address the new sovereign satcom push, including with its ultra-compact NEXUS kit, a new Type 4 antenna that is billed as being ‘the smallest multi-orbit antenna on the planet’ (pictured at top). NEXUS can easily be installed on small and large aircraft, whether operated by airlines or the government/military.

During this year’s big SATShow in Washington D.C., chairman and CTO Bill Milroy revealed that ThinKom is mulling whether or not to build some of its antennas elsewhere to support those countries that “don’t necessarily aspire to worldwide service, but want to have really great local service.”

Licensing the hardware for manufacture would be another possibility, though Milroy said: “We’re not too excited to license. We might have parts made so that we could get into those markets.”

Gilat Satellite Networks

Compatible with GEO and Eutelsat OneWeb’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation, Gilat Satellite Networks’ Stellar Blu Sidewinder electronically steerable antenna is presently used by SES and Panasonic Avionics to support multi-orbit LEO/GEO satellite-powered inflight connectivity on commercial airlines. But Gilat is also targeting business aviation, VIP, government and military markets.

During SATShow, Gilat executives told Runway Girl Network that GEO and MicroGEO remain very important for aero defense, and as such, have a continued role to play.

“It’s much easier to do sovereign communications on GEO. If you launch a LEO, it has to be by definition a global constellation,” noted Ron Levin, president of the Gilat Commercial Division. “How many countries actually need a global sovereign constellation?”

Interestingly, once a nationally-owned satellite infrastructure is agreed or in place, it can serve as a strategic anchor, opening up opportunities to partner with other countries to overcome the coverage limitations of single-nation fleets.

To wit, NATO allies Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Türkiye recently announced plans to improve connectivity and integration of sovereign, nationally owned and controlled military satellites into a “networked mega constellation,” under an initiative called HALO (Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space.)

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