Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

SBAS for Africa & Indian Ocean helicopter demonstration proves Safety of Life (SoL) services

10/06/2021

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

The Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA), Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) and Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), are working together to accelerate the development of SBAS (Satellite-Based Augmentation System) services for aviation in Africa.

Exploiting the SBAS signal broadcast over the Africa & Indian Ocean (AFI) region since September 2020, including receipt of a SBAS signal at the Optus Satellite teleport in Western Australia in October 2020, and delivering the first SBAS open service in this part of the world, via the NigComSat-1R satellite, and following up the flight demonstrations performed successfully last January at Lom Gnassingbe Eyad ma International Airport, the three partners recently conducted a successful SBAS demonstration flight on June 2nd 2021 between Douala and Kribi in Cameroon with a rotorcraft.

The aim was to demonstrate in the field the effectiveness of this technology developed as part of the SBAS for Africa & Indian Ocean programme, designed to autonomously provide SBAS services across the continent, thus improving the performance of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), GPS and Galileo.

The rotorcraft demonstration carried out a low-altitude, two-way demonstration flight along a Low-level route linking two point-in-space (PinS) approaches to the Douala airport and a point near the oil platforms off the Kribi coast. This experimental flight demonstrated the ability of the SBAS Safety of Life (SoL) services and efficiency, further demonstrating Thales's certified and proven SBAS SoL services can be applied in complex ionospheric equatorial zone using Thales specific algorithms developed over the last 5 years through significant R&D investment, and in view of the operational SBAS services expected to be delivered in 2024. The helicopter was provided by Heli Union and the SBAS receiver by Pildo Labs.

The proven application of Thales's certified SBAS SoL services in equatorial zones that present challenging ionospheric conditions follows Thales's recent announcement to enhance space based positioning systems to exploit the integrity that comes with Safety of Life services beyond the traditional aviation certified capability, that could deliver significant benefit to Australia and New Zealand including, broader industry benefits with emerging safety critical applications such as, autonomous vehicles, mining and resources as well as ground transportation, maritime and rail.

We will continue to support and contribute to the success of SBAS flight demonstrations using NIGCOMSAT-1R navigation payload to sensitize stakeholders towards acceptance and adoption of SBAS technology in Africa's Aviation sector for its many benefits especially as it concerns improvement of operational safety, reduction in operational costs and environment , declared Dr. Abimbola Alale, MD/CEO of NIGCOMSAT Ltd. It is in line with marching order and directive of the Honorable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy of Federal Republic of Nigeria; Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) FNCS, FBCS, FIIM who has directed full exploitation of the capabilities and capacity of NIGCOMSAT-1R satellite for digitalized economy in all sectors for sustainable development in the continent.

Thales Alenia Space is the ideal partner to support countries that want to implement their own SBAS system, based on our proven expertise in developing EGNOS for Europe and KASS for South Korea, coupled with our advanced satellite positioning technologies, said Benoit Broudy, Vice President, Navigation Business Unit at Thales Alenia Space This latest demonstration proved the services ability to improve satellite navigation for helicopters, in addition to civil planes, and it will help accelerate the rollout of SBAS aeronautical services in Africa.

I'm proud that we were able to demonstrate the utility and efficiency of SBAS services on our continent for all the community of airspace users, from commercial aviation to general aviation, and including rotorcraft, said Mohamed Moussa, Director General of ASECNA. In line with my vision of unification of the African Sky, the upcoming deployment of the SBAS for Africa & Indian Ocean' system, the navigation solution for Africa and by Africa, will benefit to all the aviation stakeholders of the continent, enhancing sustainably the flight safety and efficiency Commented Mohamed Moussa, ASECNA General Director.

Contact

Press Contact: Alasdair Cameron

+61 (0)2 8037 6032 / +61 (0)404 073 169 alasdair.cameron@thalesgroup.com.au
LINK: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/australia/press-release/sbas-africa-ind...
See more stories from thales

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

28/07/2026

Study: TV Operating Systems Gain Influence Over Viewing

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

Maryland Public Television Promotes Ling Ling Sun to CTO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

NUGEN Audio Helps Mix Technician Blake Bunzel Deliver Rel...

Brand's Intuitive Metering and Dialogue Tools Improve Efficiency and Maintain Clarity Across Projects Ranging from Sitcoms to Effects Heavy Fantasy Series ...

28/07/2026

TAG Video Systems Accelerates the Move to Cloud and Virtu...

TAG Video Systems, a leader in 100% software-based realtime media monitoring, multiviewing and quality control (QC), today announced the latest innovations to i...

28/07/2026

Harvard Athletics Transforms Collegiate Sports Storytelling with AJA Gear

Harvard Athletics Transforms Collegiate Sports Storytelling with AJA Gear Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Between the maturation of IP and remot...

28/07/2026

New Live Action Projection Mapping Film Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF

New Live Action Projection Mapping Film Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Large format sensor allows Texas Legacy ...

28/07/2026

NVIDIA Agent Toolkit Expands With New Omniverse Libraries, Putting AI Agents to Work Building Simulation-Ready Worlds

NVIDIA Agent Toolkit Expands With New Omniverse Libraries, Putting AI Agents to ...

28/07/2026

AI Agents Expand Creative Tools to Millions

AI Agents Expand Creative Tools to Millions Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Hero image courtesy of Epic Games Leading creative applications are...

28/07/2026

How Rick Aggeler Built a Music Community for Boston Teens

How Rick Aggeler Built a Music Community for Boston Teens When he was a Berklee student, Aggeler volunteered at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, where he hel...

28/07/2026

Are you coming to the Fleadh? RT will be there

RT Raidi na Gaeltachta, RT Radio 1, RT One and RT Player to showcase the best of the reels, rhymes and rambles from Comhaltas Fleadh Cheoil na h ireann 202...

28/07/2026

RT to broadcast The Irish Question

Through a wide range of perspectives, this documentary looks at how Ireland might navigate one of the defining political questions of the future Wednesday, Jul...

27/07/2026

AES Educational Foundation Announces 2026/2027 Scholarship and Grant Recipients

The Audio Engineering Society Educational Foundation has named its scholarship and grant recipients for the 2026/2027 academic year. The awards support students...

27/07/2026

ESPN and MEAC Reach Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement Through 2030-31

ESPN and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) have signed a multi-year media rights agreement covering basketball championships and select football and ba...

27/07/2026

Yahoo Sports and Cameo Integrate Celebrity Video Bookings into Yahoo Fantasy

Yahoo Sports and Cameo have partnered to allow fantasy football users to book personalized celebrity videos directly within the Yahoo Fantasy app and website. T...

27/07/2026

Eutelsat to Receive $504 Million in FCC Upper C-Band Transition Payments

Eutelsat has welcomed the FCC's order establishing the regulatory framework for the transition of Upper C-band spectrum in the United States. Under the orde...

27/07/2026

ESPN Acquires U.S. and International Rights to International Dance League

ESPN and the International Dance League (IDL) have signed a global rights agreement for the 2026 season. Events will air bi-weekly on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. ET beginni...

27/07/2026

NBCUniversal and YouTube Announce Multi-Year Global Partnership

NBCUniversal and YouTube have signed a multi-year global partnership that includes bundling Peacock with YouTube Premium, extending NBCUniversal's distribut...

27/07/2026

Two Weeks Away: 2026 SVG Venues & Teams Summit at Miamis Kaseya Center To Reunite In-Stadium Production Community

Agenda includes presentations from the Miami Heat, Inter Miami, Florida Panthers...

27/07/2026

Behind The Mic: CBS Sports Bolsters College Football Analyst Team

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...

27/07/2026

PBR Goes Animated With BS: Bull Stories, Giving Its Bucking Bulls a Voice

Ten one-minute shorts will roll out across CBS, The CW, Paramount+ during the 2026 PBR Teams season PBR is officially moving into scripted animation. The Profe...

27/07/2026

Vochlea announce DubBox

New app turns vocal percussion into polished loops Vochlea, the company behind the voice-to-MIDI instrument Dubler 2, have just announced the launch of a ne...

27/07/2026

Sonora Cinematic launch Pure 12-String for Soundbox

Latest MPE-capable instrument completes Pure Trilogy line-up Sonora Cinematic have just released the third and final instalment in their series of acoustic ...

27/07/2026

fedDSP introduce Opto compressor plug-in

Emulates four varieties of optical compression The latest addition to the fedDSP line-up has just been announced, and packs four distinct optical compressor...

27/07/2026

Drawmer reveal the OC1 & FC1

Optical & FET compressors join 500-series line-up At our recent GearExpo UK show, we heard from Drawmer that they would soon be launching a pair of new 500-...

27/07/2026

T-Mobile Tops Ookla's Mobile Network Rankings

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

Pebble to Feature Virtualization, Cloud-Based Playout Tech at IBC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

NBCU Telemundo Turns To Chyron PRIME 5 For World Cup Graphics

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

Lightware Adds SNMPv3 Monitoring to Taurus Devices

Lightware announces SNMPv3-based monitoring support for selected Taurus devices, available from firmware v1.20.0. The update enables IT administrators and AV in...

27/07/2026

Mediagenix Showcases the Real-Time Media Enterprise at IB...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase its vision for the Real-Time...

27/07/2026

Official trailer: Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in Sky Original supernatural thriller Possession

All episodes available Thursday 6 August on Sky and streaming service NOWMonday ...

27/07/2026

Seven paradoxes shaping the next era of media production - Episode 4

Why Confidence MattersIn this series, we explore the technologies, architectures and operational realities shaping modern media operations. Along the way, we ex...

27/07/2026

Apple brings AppleCare One to the UK, streamlining coverage - UPDATE - Posted on 27 July 2026

Apple today announced AppleCare One - a new way for customers to protect multipl...

27/07/2026

944,000 VIEWERS WATCH RT'S COVERAGE OF MAYO'S HISTORIC WIN, AFTER A 75 YEAR WAIT TO LIFT THE SAM MAGUIRE

Yesterday witnessed truly memorable scenes in Croke Park, bringing the curtain d...

27/07/2026

SES Statement On FCC Upper C-band Auction Decision

Luxembourg, July 27, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, issued the following statement following the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approval...

27/07/2026

Industry Leaders Unite in Open Secure AI Alliance for AI Safety and Security

Open source software is a critical pillar of the global economy. It underpins cloud computing, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, government...

26/07/2026

Audio Vivid: A New Destination for Immersive Audio

What is Audio Vivid? A New Destination for Immersive Audio Over the past several years, immersive audio has evolved from a niche production consideration into a...

26/07/2026

NVIDIA Harnesses Vera CPU to Speed Up Design of Next-Generation CPUs and GPUs

The complexity of modern chip design continues to grow as engineering teams work to develop increasingly sophisticated CPUs, GPUs and AI systems. To help meet t...

25/07/2026

Vochlea introduce DubBox

New app turns vocal percussion into polished loops Vochlea, the company behind the voice-to-MIDI instrument Dubler 2, have just announced the launch of a ne...

25/07/2026

Study: T-Mobile Remains Best Mobile and Fastest 5G Network

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/07/2026

Mark Bridges to Lead CableLabs

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/07/2026

Total YouTube Views for All FIFA World Cup Content Top 200 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/07/2026

Pebble To Address Future Of Media Operations At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/07/2026

Paramount Agrees to Pause Warner Bros. Discovery Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/07/2026

Export FCP7 to XML Without Needing FCP7 Installed

Export FCP7 to XML Without Needing FCP7 Installed Dave Rice July 24, 2026 0 Comments I've created an open source tool that allows you to export FC...

25/07/2026

Documentary Sell Your House Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio

Documentary Sell Your House Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton July 24, 2026 0 Comments Filmmakers post feature documentary from opposite...