The UK Ministry of Defence has announced that the Oberon earth observation synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite mission has been awarded to Airbus Defence and Space, with Oxford Space Systems as a key supplier.

Sean Sutcliffe, Chief Executive at Oxford Space Systems commented; “We are delighted to be part of the consortium selected to deliver the next generation intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance radar spacecraft for the UK. Oxford Space Systems is supplying the deployable antenna for this mission and is therefore a key enabler for this high performance capability at a competitive cost. The selection of Oxford Space Systems technology for this demanding and critical application is a testament to the many years of work that we and our partners have put into extensive development and testing of our innovative wrapped rib design, to be able to deliver and assure its performance and reliability. This success has been enabled by the support for the technology development and capability building given by our equity partners as well as by Government programmes.”

The programme will be utilising the innovative Wrapped Rib Antenna developed by Oxford Space Systems, enabling the deployment of both a primary reflector and secondary surface from a uniquely compact launch configuration. The Wrapped Rib Antenna incorporates carbon fibre and knitted gold-plated metal mesh components built in house at Oxford Space Systems facilities in Harwell and Abingdon, UK, together with manufactured parts from a predominantly UK supply chain, to form a large parabolic dish on deployment.

For this application, the Wrapped Rib Antenna is being used to provide Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capabilities and is part of a family of Wrapped Rib Antenna products which have both government and commercial use capabilities covering radar, communications and frequency monitoring applications over a range of radio frequencies, and with strong potential sales in selected export markets.

The Wrapped Rib Antenna development programme has been supported over more than 7 years from inception by government programmes including those from Innovate UK, National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), DSTL, DASA, ESA and UKSA; through commercial collaboration including with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and Airbus Defence and Space, and through Oxford Space Systems equity investment.

Click here to learn more about Airbus' Antenna Positioning Mechanisms