2008 February 5

On 20th December, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation and Defence signed an agreement to develop secure communications for external State action, under which INSA will introduce a communications system in Spanish diplomatic representations abroad and in countries where there are Spanish contingents in international missions or which are of interest in Defence terms.The aim is to provide greater security, speed and capacity when sending data and images and voice communication.

Ten communications terminals will be installed in locations of several other countries of particular importance.These terminals will be connected to therespective central communication nodes located in the Defence and Foreign Affairs headquarters. All of these elements will be connected in X-band by Hisdesat using the Spanish government satellites SpainSat and XTAR-EUR system, thereby incorporating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation to existing government users:Ministries of Defence and the Interior, US State and Defence Departments and the Belgian and Danish Ministries of Defence.

The final objective of this network is to extend it into a telecommunications network that will provide services to all the diplomatic and Defence missions abroad, with the installation of over two hundred terminals.