Service FWC for the Provision of Satellite Communication, related Services and Supplies (26.ISE.JP.001)

The European Defence Agency (EDA) has published an open tender (EDA/2026/OP/0011, TED ref 732645-2026) to award a single framework agreement to one contractor for commercial satellite communication services, equipment, managed services and related support worldwide. The framework has an estimated maximum value of €450 million, a maximum duration of 48 months and will be awarded on a best price-quality ratio basis with quality weighted at 70% and price at 30%. Tenders must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by 22 January 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time and must include the mandatory completed compliance matrix, service catalogue, price catalogue and financial offer. The contract requires EU-based 24/7 service desk support, guaranteed service availability levels and rapid delivery and restoration timelines for routine, short and emergency orders.

Opportunity summary

Open tender by the European Defence Agency (EDA) to award a single framework contract for commercially available satellite communication services and related supplies and support (raw bandwidth, anchoring, backhauling, managed services, terminals, engineering studies, maintenance, crypto solutions, transport and training).

Who can apply

Commercial satellite service providers, equipment suppliers, and consortia (single companies or joint tenders; subcontracting allowed subject to rules). Tenderers must meet the exclusion and selection criteria in the tender specifications and submit required evidence via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

Tenders must be submitted electronically through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal (EU Login required). Full tender must include administrative, exclusion/selection evidence, technical proposal (service and price catalogues, compliance matrix) and financial proposal; mandatory technical requirements are listed in Annex 4.9 of the tender specifications.

Procurement documents (invitation letter, tender specifications, draft FWC, price/financial templates, compliance matrix and annexes) were published on the Funding & Tenders Portal on 22/10/2026; tenderers must complete the compliance matrix and follow submission rules in the tender specifications.

Access the call and procurement documents via the portal EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

Footnotes

1. 1See Annex 4.6 and Tender Specifications for required Price Catalogue structure, ceilings and pricing tables.

Opportunity summary

What this tender is for

The European Defence Agency (EDA) is running an open procedure to award a single framework service contract (FWC) for commercially available satellite communication services and related supplies and support. The contract will cover lease and supply of raw satellite capacity across frequency bands (C, Ku, Ka, L and X as applicable), anchoring/teleport and backhauling, managed services (including LEO/MEO/GEO-managed offerings such as Starlink and OneWeb), engineering studies, equipment leasing and purchase, terminals and accessories, transport and installation, cyber protection and commercial crypto modules, training, service desk and 24/7 technical support, transition and handover measures, and related logistics. The FWC duration is up to 48 months and the estimated maximum total value is €450,000,000.

Key dates, value and logistics

Tenders must be submitted exclusively electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal e-Submission application. A EU Login/PIC is required to access e-Submission and upload the submission. All procurement documents (Invitation Letter, Tender Specifications, Annexes 4.1–4.9, Draft FWC, Financial Offer form and Compliance Matrix) were published on 22/10/2026 and are available on the call page F&T tender page 1.

Who can apply and how

Eligible applicants and participation details are set out in the tender specifications. The EDA expects experienced commercial satellite service providers and consortia including operators, system integrators and suppliers to apply, with evidence of technical, operational and financial capacity.

The tender specifications list required administrative, exclusion and selection documents (Declaration on Honour, Identification Form, Evidence of economic and financial capacity, evidence of technical and professional capacity). Use the checklist in Annex 4.1 when compiling e-Submission attachments. Subcontractors whose share exceeds 10% must provide letters of intent (Annex 4.2).

Procurement model, evaluation and award

This is a single FWC without reopening of competition. Execution of services will be ordered via Simple Order Requests for catalogue-priced services and Tailored Order Requests for engineered/complex solutions. Offers for Simple ORs must be returned within 7 calendar days; Tailored ORs require an engineering study and an offer within 18 calendar days. Payment and invoicing cycles are described in the Draft FWC and Tender Specifications.

Technical scope highlights and mandatory service requirements

Tenderers must meet all mandatory technical requirements (M-001 to M-089) listed in Annex 4.9 Compliance Matrix. Non-compliance with any mandatory requirement will lead to rejection. Highlights below summarise core mandatory service elements, terminal lists and SLAs; full detail is in Annex 4.9 and the Tender Specifications.

Project maturity, deliverables and scenarios

This FWC covers operational delivery to deployed end users, missions and EU Member States. Typical project stages expected under ORs are deployment, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance, and handover/transition. Annex 4.8 provides three hypothetical scenarios (A, B, C) used for evaluation (examples: tactical VSAT links for Kosovo; mobile high-throughput kits and Starlink packages for Greece; C-Band VSAT installation in Mogadishu for EUCAP Somalia). Tenderers must demonstrate suitability via responses to these scenarios.

Evaluation, compliance and templates

Mandatory compliance and evidence templates are provided as annexes and must be completed exactly as requested in e-Submission. Required annexes include Invitation Letter, Tender Specifications, Annexes 4.1–4.9 (Checklist, Subcontractor Letter of Intent, Power of Attorney, Declaration on Honour, Financial & Economic Capacity form, Financial Proposal template, Draft FWC, Scenarios, Compliance Matrix). Failure to include required documents as per Annex 4.1 will cause rejection for incompleteness.

Commercial and contractual highlights

The Draft Framework Contract (Annex 4.7) governs contractual terms, including order process, pricing ceilings and revisions, payments, intellectual property, confidentiality, audits and termination rights. The Draft FWC is a single-award framework; EDA may order via Simple ORs or Tailored ORs and reserves the right to place or not place orders against the FWC. The FWC contains specific provisions for security clearance requirements for deployed personnel (PSC S-UE/EU-S level or national equivalent), export control obligations and handover/transition clauses for incumbent service continuity.

Risk, security and audits

Tenderers must declare exclusion and selection information and accept checks, audits and on-site inspections by EDA, OLAF, the EPPO and the European Court of Auditors for up to five years after final payment. Contractors must comply with EDA security rules and Council Decision 2013/488/EU where applicable, maintain records and provide access to documentation for checks and audits. Export control obligations and any national licensing restrictions must be declared in the tender (see requirement M-060).

How to get started

Prepare a compliant technical proposal that addresses the Compliance Matrix (Annex 4.9) line-by-line, complete the Service and Price Catalogues using the Annex 4.6 templates, assemble administrative and legal evidence per Annex 4.1 checklist, and submit via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal eSubmission before 22/01/2027 17:00 Brussels time. Use the portal Q&A for clarifications and consult the Draft FWC (Annex 4.7) and Tender Specifications (Annex 4.1) for detailed contractual obligations. For practical guidance on the portal and e-Submission, use the F&T portal help and eSubmission quick guides.

This summary compiles the essential and practical information scraped from the official procurement publication and its annexed documents. Applicants must consult the full tender documentation on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for authoritative and exhaustive requirements, templates and legal provisions before preparing and submitting a tender FTA tender page 1.

Footnotes

1. 1Procurement documents including Tender Specifications, Annexes 4.1-4.9, Financial Offer form and Draft Framework Contract are available on the Funding & Tenders portal tender details page: ec.europa.eu

Service FWC for the Provision of Satellite Communication, Related Services and Supplies

Opportunity identification

This is a high-value defence procurement tender, not a grant scheme. The European Defence Agency intends to appoint one contractor under a single framework agreement for commercially available satellite communication services, equipment, technical support and related supplies. The opportunity is published through the European Commission Funding and Tenders Portal under procedure EDA/2026/OP/0011 and TED reference 732645-2026. Official opportunity page: EU Funding and Tenders Portal.

The procurement is particularly relevant to satellite operators, telecommunications providers, managed service providers, teleport operators, satellite equipment manufacturers and distributors, defence communications integrators, cyber security providers, logistics providers and specialist engineering firms. The scope is broad and may require a lead contractor supported by consortium members and subcontractors.

Contracting authority and procedure

The lead contracting authority is the European Defence Agency. The procedure is an open procedure for services, with one lot and electronic submission through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. The main CPV classification is 64200000, Telecommunications services.

The framework agreement is described as a framework agreement without reopening of competition. The tender therefore seeks to establish the contractual basis, catalogue and pricing structure under which subsequent order requests can be issued, rather than awarding one fixed technical deployment at the outset.

The framework is intended to have a maximum duration of 48 months. The estimated overall contract value is €450 million. This is an estimated maximum procurement value and should not be interpreted as a guaranteed award amount, minimum turnover or grant allocation.

Key opportunity facts

The principal commercial and procedural parameters are as follows.

Scope of procurement

The contractor must be capable of supplying a comprehensive portfolio of satellite communications and associated support. The scope includes raw satellite capacity, anchoring, backhauling, managed services, engineering studies, maintenance, equipment leasing and purchasing, commercial cryptographic solutions, cyber protection, training, logistics and other services required to support end user requirements.

The requirements cover fixed, land mobile, maritime and airborne use cases, including communications on the move and communications on the pause. Services may be required worldwide, subject to satellite coverage, regulatory constraints, export controls, security requirements and technical feasibility.

Core service areas

The expected portfolio includes the following service areas.

Technical and service performance requirements

The tender contains an extensive compliance matrix. The compliance matrix is mandatory and must be completed, signed and included with the tender. Failure to meet a mandatory requirement can result in rejection before the award stage.

Satellite capacity and availability

L-band services

Equipment and terminals

Support, security and operational delivery

Pricing and commercial model

The procurement does not offer a fixed grant contribution, reimbursement percentage or funding rate. The successful contractor will be paid for services, supplies and order requests delivered under the framework agreement in accordance with the accepted service catalogue, price catalogue, framework contract and individual order requests.

The total estimated value of €450 million represents the anticipated overall procurement value. It does not guarantee that the successful contractor will receive €450 million, and the tender documentation should be checked for any maximum framework ceiling, order conditions, minimum commitments, payment terms, taxes, guarantees, liability provisions and price adjustment rules.

The financial offer must be submitted using the official financial offer form. Pricing is required in euros and must cover a highly detailed range of services and durations.

Required pricing categories

The financial offer form includes weighted price evaluation scenarios for several service categories. The extracted spreadsheet data contains blank price fields and should not be interpreted as indicating zero prices. Tenderers must complete the current official spreadsheet and comply with its formulas, units, weighting and formatting instructions.

Who can apply

The opportunity is open to economic operators able to meet the tender specifications and selection criteria. A tender may be submitted by a single contractor, a joint tendering group or a main contractor supported by subcontractors, subject to the rules in the official procurement documents.

Potential applicants should be established organisations with the legal, financial, technical, professional, operational, security and supply chain capability to provide the full scope or to assemble and manage the required capability through consortium members and subcontractors.

The tender is marked as not specifically suitable for SMEs. This does not necessarily prevent SME participation, but the breadth of the technical scope, global delivery obligations, security requirements, 24 hour service desk, satellite operator relationships and financial capacity requirements indicate that many SMEs may need to participate as specialist consortium members or subcontractors rather than as the sole contractor.

Consortium and subcontracting arrangements

Eligibility and exclusion conditions

All involved entities must complete the applicable exclusion and selection declarations. Applicants must not be in bankruptcy or analogous insolvency proceedings, in serious breach of tax or social security obligations, guilty of grave professional misconduct, involved in fraud, corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing, criminal organisation activities, trafficking or other specified offences, or subject to relevant exclusion decisions or investigations.

Applicants must also disclose relevant situations involving directors, persons with powers of representation or control, beneficial owners and persons assuming unlimited liability. The declarations cover conflicts of interest, restrictive measures, established debts to the European Union and the independent preparation of the tender.

The contracting authority may request recent judicial records, tax and social security certificates, company registration evidence, financial evidence, technical evidence and other supporting documents. Evidence previously submitted to the European Defence Agency may be reusable where it remains current and the situation has not changed.

Selection capability

The tender specifications require economic and financial capacity, technical and professional capacity and professional suitability. The exact thresholds and evidence must be taken from section 3.5.3 of the tender specifications, because the available metadata does not reproduce all numerical thresholds.

Applicants should prepare evidence covering satellite capacity access, operator relationships, global service delivery, teleport and backhaul capability, managed services, equipment supply, maintenance, cyber security, logistics, engineering, service desk operation, order fulfilment, technical staffing and security cleared personnel.

Submission requirements

Submission is exclusively electronic through the Funding and Tenders Portal. An EU Login account is required to access the electronic submission system, submit questions and submit the tender. The organisation must have a Participant Identification Code, or PIC, for participation as a sole tenderer or consortium member.

The submission should be prepared against the official eSubmission checklist and must include the documents applicable to the selected participation structure.

Expected submission package

The tender specifications state that the compliance matrix, service catalogue, price catalogue, technical proposal and financial proposal are essential parts of the tender. Their absence may make the tender incomplete and lead to rejection.

Award evaluation

The award method is best price quality ratio. The available procurement metadata indicates a quality weighting of 70 percent and a price weighting of 30 percent. The precise subcriteria, scoring method, minimum quality thresholds and treatment of non-compliance must be taken from the tender specifications and annexes.

The quality weighting is significant. Applicants should therefore avoid treating the tender as a price only competition. The technical proposal should demonstrate credible delivery of every mandatory requirement, operational resilience, service availability, transition capability, security compliance, global logistics, order response capacity and governance arrangements.

Key deadlines and timing

The metadata supplied with the opportunity includes an additional deadline value of 1 January 2027. This conflicts with the detailed call information, which identifies 22 January 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time as the deadline for receipt of tenders. Tenderers should rely on the live Funding and Tenders Portal, the invitation letter and any corrigendum immediately before submission, and should not assume that the earlier date is irrelevant without checking the portal.

Applicant preparation strategy

Main risks and points requiring verification

Documents available through the opportunity

Overall assessment

This is a major strategic procurement for a provider capable of delivering secure and resilient satellite communications across commercial satellite networks, defence operational environments and worldwide end user locations. The opportunity is most suitable for a prime systems integrator, satellite communications operator or established telecommunications group with strong operator relationships and a mature international delivery network.

Specialist SMEs can have a realistic route to participation through a consortium or subcontracting role, particularly in satellite capacity, terminals, cyber defence, encryption, engineering, field maintenance, logistics, training, tracking systems or regional service delivery.

The strongest tenders will combine complete mandatory compliance, credible global execution, rapid order fulfilment, resilient service management, transparent and competitive catalogue pricing, secure information handling and a well evidenced transition and handover plan. Applicants should treat the official tender specifications, financial offer form, compliance matrix and draft framework contract as controlling documents for all final eligibility, technical, financial and contractual conclusions.

Authoritative sources

The primary authoritative source is the European Commission Funding and Tenders Portal opportunity page: Service FWC for Satellite Communication Services and Supplies. The European Defence Agency procurement information page also provides information on ongoing EDA procurement procedures: European Defence Agency Procurement.