Telesat Lightspeed to seek military contracts
April 14, 2026
By Chris Forrester
Ottawa-based Telesat has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to permit it to add military/governmental frequencies to its Lightspeed satellites. The frequencies would be enabled when its satellites are outside the US.
Telesat’s Lightspeed wants to add Ka-band military options in the 20.2-20.7 GHz and 30-30.5 GHz bands.
Telesat, in its filing to the FCC on April 11th, confirmed that it is not seeking US market access for the military payload “at this time”.
Glenn Katz, Telesat’s CCIO, has said the move would “deliver significantly more capacity than all Mil-Ka in orbit today,” and aligns with increasing data requirements of NATO members and allied defense partners.
The filing suggests that the Lightspeed fleet will be active in Q1 2028 (a chip-set development is reported to be behind a delay from the anticipated late-2027 launch date).
However, this means that Lightspeed’s 198 satellites (an initial service will come from 156 satellites) could be active around 2 years sooner than Europe’s IRIS2 governmental constellation, and thus be active in seeking military demand for defence and government-based capacity from Europe and elsewhere.
Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg is on record as saying that 500 MHz of Ka-band (military) capacity will replace an equal amount of non-military capacity on its Lightspeed fleet.
“The geopolitical environment is driving once-in-a-generation increases in defense investments by allied countries globally,” Goldberg said in March.
Telesat is planning to have around 96 satellites in orbit by the end of 2027.