Canada’s Defence Investment Agency awarded the contract under the Enhanced Satellite Communications Project – Polar programme. It is the largest contract in Telesat’s six-decade history.
The agreement includes two five-year options worth about 200 million Canadian dollars each. Those options could raise the total contract value to 2.7 billion Canadian dollars.
Services are scheduled to begin in 2028. Telesat still expects global Lightspeed services to start in the first quarter of that year.
The contract will fund 69 additional satellites and increase planned network capacity by 44%. Canadian government milestone payments will begin in the third quarter of 2026.
“This contract ensures the Canadian Armed Forces will have access to secure, resilient and sovereign connectivity years earlier than originally planned, at a great value for money, and with a scalable architecture designed to meet future global operational requirements and support interoperability with Canada’s allies and partners,” said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s President and CEO. “High speed and low latency connectivity is critical for modern military forces, and Telesat Lightspeed is expected to be foundational for future CAF and allied governments’ operations.”
The initial contract covers Military Ka-band services between 65 and 90 degrees north latitude. It represents the first phase of Canada’s polar military communications programme.
A separate agreement will cover terminals, ground infrastructure and control systems. It will also include network integration, training and support services.
MDA Space will build the additional satellites at its Montreal manufacturing facility. Each spacecraft will carry commercial and Military Ka-band capacity.
SpaceX will launch the satellites using Falcon 9 rockets already secured by Telesat. Another Falcon 9 launch remains subject to a separate services agreement.
The expansion will raise expected investment in the 225-satellite network to about 7 billion Canadian dollars. Telesat said it had invested 2.7 billion Canadian dollars to date.
Telesat said the military capacity could also support NATO members and other allied governments. The network is designed to improve communications across regions and military domains.
The broader programme also includes Ultra-High Frequency and X-band satellite services. MDA Space will lead that work, while Telesat will act as a subcontractor and systems integrator.
