Iridium Communications has inked a definitive agreement to acquire Aireon LLC, its joint venture with multiple air navigation service providers (ANSPs) that operates the only space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) air traffic surveillance system in the world.
Created in 2011, the Aireon JV’s space-based ADS-B payload has been riding on Iridium’s NEXT constellation of L-band Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites since 2019, making it possible to monitor air traffic in areas without traditional radar and ground-based coverage, including over oceans and in the Arctic
More recently, the JV has also pursued a space-based VHF initiative with the aim of ultimately relieving VHF congestion using satellite links — a project that Iridium has both championed and worked independently on.
“Now, we can work those plans together,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch told Runway Girl Network during a media briefing to discuss the acquisition, which will see Iridium pay roughly $366.7 million to acquire the remaining 61% of equity interests of Aireon that it does not own.
Under the arrangement, five ANSPs — NAV CANADA (Canada), NATS (UK), ENAV (Italy), AirNav (Ireland), and Naviair (Denmark) — are selling their shares in Aireon, meaning that Iridium will become the sole owner when the deal closes in early July. The purchase price will be paid 50% at closing and 50% on the one-year anniversary, and Iridium will assume Aireon’s outstanding debt, which is expected to be about $155 million at closing.
In connection with the acquistion, NAV CANADA and NATS, which together manage the high-traffic North Atlantic Tracks between Europe and North America, will sign extended data services agreements through 2035 and beyond, with provisions for continued cooperative development of space-based VHF and other new capabilities.
Naviair also has a new contract with Aireon for the provision of surveillance data in connection with the establishment of the TMA (terminal maneuvering area) over Nuuk Airport. But it said it understands that “Aireon’s future development will increasingly be driven by commercial data utilization and business areas outside Naviair’s core function as an air navigation service provider. Therefore, Naviair is now passing the baton to Iridium, which already owns the satellite network behind the solution and has, throughout the years, been the company’s largest technological and commercial partner.”
According to Iridium, ANSPs covering more than 50% of the global airspace — including non-owners — rely on Aireon data to create safer and more efficient airspace. The firm also remains hopeful and optimistic that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as part of its ATC modernization efforts, will eventually look to improve its surveillance capabilities for US oceanic and remote territories, with Desch describing Aireon as “an FAA-ready system.”
Beyond surveillance for ANSPs, Aireon operates a fast-growing aviation data services business that sells real-time and historical aviation data to airlines, airports, OEMs, governments, and aerospace stakeholders. For example, Swedish firm Flightradar24 recently expanded its flight tracking capabilities with the addition of Aireon’s space-based ADS-B data, and Aireon CEO Don Thoma said on today’s call that those types of relationships will continue to be pursued as new joint services are explored for both Aireon and Iridium’s distribution channels.
An aero safety powerhouse
The pairing of Iridium and Aireon is naturally synergistic in other ways that will color the future of aviation safety.
Iridium’s satcom solutions are installed on over 60,000 aircraft in the world fleet. Its legacy L-band service powers cockpit communications and safety services on civil aircraft flying over oceans, while its next-gen Certus AvSafey solutions are undergoing flight trials in a bid to receive the FAA’s blessing to support FANS-1/A, the Future Air Navigation System products that facilitate communication between pilots and air traffic control when aircraft are flying over oceans.
Iridium also boasts new positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) proficiencies, which help to keep GPS-dependent systems working in contested environments. Its value added manufacturers in aviation are already exploring ways to bring another layer of safety to the flight deck by using PNT in avionics to complement and protect GPS.
Uniting Aireon’s global, real-time air traffic surveillance and data services, including AireonVECTOR datasets that detect GPS jamming and spoofing, with Iridium’s global satellite network and new PNT services will “unlock” growth in aviation, one of Iridium’s four key growth pillars, Desch noted on the call.
This combination creates one company providing four critical aviation industry capabilities: knowing where every aircraft is, communicating with the pilots flying them, providing the navigation and timing integrity those aircraft rely on, and translating that information into operational insights that make airspace safer and more efficient. No other satellite operator delivers this combination of capabilities on a global scale.
Ingesting Aireon more fully inside Iridium also “better positions us to build what’s needed to support the future of aviation, including more innovations like the future introduction of space-based VHF communications,” Desch said.
Independent payloads
Space-based VHF is rather profound in that it would enable pilots to use existing VHF radios to communicate with ATC over Iridium’s L-band links.
“It does require new satellites. It does require some development,” said the Iridium CEO, adding that it’s early days and regulatory work will also be necessary.
But Iridium doesn’t technically need to replace its existing NEXT LEO network until at least 2035 “and probably later than that,” Desch said.
So, while preliminary designs are underway for a next-gen constellation that will be larger than Iridium’s existing 66-satellite network, he revealed, “I will say, with the acquisition of Aireon and other things that we are talking about, we’re looking at ways of possibly launching additional missions into space even prior to that.”
Desch continued:
The market, with more rockets, less expensive satellites, with a potential for some of the business cases, there may be earlier ways of both not just expanding things like space-based VHF or advanced, space-based ADS-B, but for example, we’re looking at increasing the accuracy and resiliency of our PNT service, which is groundbreaking into itself and for which it has a huge aspect.
If we could be launching more payloads into space, maybe they’d be independent payloads only doing certain services. We could make our already extremely resilient alternate PNT service as accurate, or even more accurate than GPS is right now, and that has benefits as well. So, we are actively working plans on that.
In short, the acquisition of Aireon will allow Iridium to “accelerate some of our thinking in some of these areas, even in advance of a next generation system.”
For its part, Aireon has already applied for a license for VHF, “and what we’re looking at is a way to get a pathfinder approach that could potentially cover an equatorial band, if you will,” Thoma noted of the firm’s 20-satellite plan.
“That would allow us to not only prove out the space-based VHF concepts that we have, but also look at how we best and most efficiently integrate it into a next generation satellite system.”
He added, “To provide space-based VHF communications, that is a safety service, and it requires the same level of care and diligence that we put into space-based surveillance… Being certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency and all of our ANSP regulators has put a pedigree on the Aireon service that we want to apply to the VHF service. So our team, primarily the Aireon team, has been working on different alternatives to begin that service even before the next generation Iridium satellites are launched.”
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- Flightradar24, Aireon partnership sees ADS-B data streams combined
- Iridium VAMs explore integrating PNT service with avionics
- Aireon sees opportunity to aid FAA in ATC modernization
Featured image credited to Iridium Communications
