Galaxy 1 Communications and Viasat have signed a production agreement that takes Velaris, Viasat’s satellite communications service for uncrewed aircraft, out of proof-of-concept work and into commercial delivery. Galaxy 1 will run the partner enablement platform around the service, from onboarding and billing to remote terminal management.

The companies announced the step in a press release dated November 2, 2026, from Carlsbad, California. It follows two years of joint development, integration, testing and proof-of-concept work, after which the companies say they have validated the capabilities needed for production service delivery. They described the transition as a foundation for commercial growth beyond connectivity.

What Galaxy 1 takes on in production

Velaris is Viasat’s satellite communications services platform for autonomous and uncrewed aviation, combining connectivity, operational services and a partner ecosystem. According to the release, Viasat is scaling it with its L-band satellite capabilities for autonomous delivery aircraft carrying logistics and medicine, flying taxis, and inspection aircraft used in emergencies and remote industrial work. Partners include aircraft manufacturers, operators, service providers and technology partners.

Under the agreement, Galaxy 1 provides the partner enablement platform across three areas:

• Operational support and commercial enablement: onboarding, provisioning, billing and reporting.
• Infrastructure and service management: network infrastructure, remote terminal management through Galaxy 1’s Remote Terminal Manager (RTM) platform, and tools to activate, monitor, configure and manage uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) services, including incident management and service restoration.
• Integration, automation and visibility: application programming interface (API) integration with third-party UAV applications and partner platforms, operational visibility, terminal lifecycle management and increasingly automated service delivery.

Martyn Durrant, Chief Commercial Officer of Galaxy 1 Communications, said that “Moving into production is an important milestone and a strong validation of the platform” the companies developed over two years. He said the goal was to build operational and commercial infrastructure for a scalable UAV and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystem, not only to provide connectivity.

Sandeep Moorthy, Senior Vice President and GM, Advanced NTN Solutions, New Ventures at Viasat, said Viasat is “at the center of a growing ecosystem” for uncrewed connectivity. He said partners need scalable frameworks to deploy, manage and scale, and that the collaboration strengthens the partner network and speeds up services worldwide.

How the Velaris partner model was built

Galaxy 1’s role dates to a collaboration it announced with Viasat on March 3, 2026, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In that release, Galaxy 1 described its Distribution Partner-as-a-Service (DPaaS) model as a managed operational layer that handles provisioning, billing, compliance oversight and integration, rather than a traditional distributor. Its stated purpose was to help UAV and AAM companies move from proof-of-concept to commercially scaled, regulated deployment, with a multi-API integration layer linking flight planning, tracking and safety tools, and monitoring through its IBIS and RTM platforms.

On May 5, 2026, Viasat said L2 Aviation had joined the Velaris ecosystem through Galaxy 1, the arrangement AirPro News covered when L2 Aviation joined the Velaris ecosystem. L2, an avionics design, engineering, certification, manufacturing and installation specialist with nearly three decades of experience in aircraft modifications, is to support the integration and certification of satellite communications for uncrewed aircraft systems and AAM platforms as they move from demonstration to deployment.

Velaris predates Galaxy 1’s involvement. In August 2024, Viasat said it had integrated its Velaris L-band satellite terminal into a multi-link communications system with Avionics Networks, a developer of communication systems for UAVs. Use cases named at the time included drones delivering medical supplies and organs, uncrewed search and rescue aircraft, agriculture, safety scanning on oil rigs and aircraft fighting wildfires.

The service and the network behind it

Viasat’s Velaris product page describes a dedicated satellite communications service for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. It lists voice, command and control (C2), health monitoring, uncrewed traffic management (UTM) integration and video surveillance through a single connection, along with support for one controller operating multiple aircraft from a central location.

Viasat calls its hybrid satellite and cellular terminal its “smallest and lightest terminal,” with a listed height of 83mm, and says partners offer miniaturized terminals weighing “as little as 300g.” The page says the service runs on Viasat’s global fleet of L-band satellites and that further I-8 satellites will launch in the coming years. Partners shown on the page include Avionics Networks, Bellwether, Dimetor and Honeywell, whose satcom antenna work for BVLOS drones AirPro News has also covered.

The page says Velaris was created by the team behind Iris and SwiftBroadband-Safety (SB-S), which Viasat describes as the only safety-certified IP-connectivity service for crewed aviation. It names no specific certification for Velaris itself.

Viasat describes itself as a global communications company with offices in 24 countries; it completed its acquisition of Inmarsat in May 2023. Galaxy 1 Communications provides managed satellite connectivity and secure Internet of Things (IoT) enablement and cites more than 20 years of expertise. The November release does not disclose financial terms, customer numbers or which operators will use the production service.

Tekever will set up an operational presence in Odense, Denmark, its first in the Nordic region, and Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund (EIFO) has signed a commitment to invest in the company through a new closing of its Series D round. Tekever announced both steps on November 6, 2026, after a meeting in Copenhagen with Denmark’s Minister of Defence, Jeppe Bruus.

In its press release, the company said it is creating a Danish entity, has made progress on agreements with local partners and is preparing to recruit, and that the Danish presence will be built up in phases depending on demand and approvals. The site joins what Tekever calls a connected European network that already includes Portugal, the UK, France, Germany and Estonia, following the recent launch of its German hub in Munich.

Why Tekever chose Odense

Tekever said it chose Odense for its established drone and robotics ecosystem. The company named Odense Robotics, UAS Denmark’s International Test Center and the University of Southern Denmark’s SDU Drone Center and Flight Lab as the local assets that give it access to Danish testing and research, specialist companies and talent. Odense Municipality has welcomed the plans, according to the company.

Tekever already works with Danish partners and said it sees opportunities in defence, security and technology. It also plans to explore with Danish stakeholders how its dual-use systems could help monitor critical offshore energy infrastructure. The release gives no opening date, headcount or investment figure for the Danish site.

Ricardo Mendes, CEO of Tekever, said: “Establishing our first operational presence in Denmark gives TEKEVER a platform” to work with customers and partners across the region. He called EIFO’s investment “an important milestone” and said Denmark’s strengths in drone testing, robotics and research form a strong foundation for collaboration. “Over time, we aim to contribute to Danish sovereign industrial and technological capabilities,” Mendes said, adding the wider Nordic region to that aim.

Peder Lundquist, CEO at EIFO, said: “With this investment, EIFO is supporting TEKEVER’s continued growth”. He said the investment brings a European defence company closer to Denmark and creates potential for more collaboration, technology development and Danish industrial participation in European defence.

How the EIFO commitment fits the Series D

The Danish investment is part of Tekever’s US$580 million Series D financing. The first close, announced on September 23, 2026, valued the company at US$6.4 billion. UC Investments, the investment office of the University of California, and Baillie Gifford led that close, which was UC Investments’ first direct investment in Europe. Merlyn Advisors joined as a new strategic investor, and existing shareholders Crescent Cove, Ventura Capital and Iberis Capital continued to invest.

When it announced the first close, Tekever said that close covered most of the fundraise and that it expected additional Series D closings over the following months to bring in new strategic investors. EIFO enters through one of those new closings. The size of its investment was not disclosed.

Tekever says the funding will support international expansion, industrial and technological capabilities and strategic acquisitions. The company, which describes itself as Europe’s leading provider of AI-powered autonomous systems, develops autonomous systems for defence, security and civil applications.

AR5 operations from HMS Queen Elizabeth

On November 4, 2026, an AR5 operated from the flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth during Heavy Lift Challenge 3, the first time the type had operated from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier, according to Tekever. The aircraft took off from the company’s Flight Operations and Training Centre in Atouguia da Baleia, Portugal, flew for around 90 minutes to reach the carrier, completed two landings and two take-offs from the deck, and returned to Atouguia da Baleia on a flight of approximately 120 minutes.

The trial explored how fixed-wing uncrewed aircraft could support logistics, sustainment and maritime intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions, and how they could operate alongside other systems in a carrier group. The Royal Navy, the British Army, the RAF and industry partners delivered the wider trials.

Tiago Nunes, Tekever’s Director of Platforms, said: “Operating an AR5 from a carrier for the first time marks an important step.” Lieutenant Commander David Burton, trials sponsor for Navy Capability at the Royal Navy, said: “The successful operation of a TEKEVER AR5 from HMS Queen Elizabeth has provided valuable insight.”

The UK programmes behind the AR5

The carrier trial follows Tekever’s contract worth up to £400 million with the UK Ministry of Defence under Project CORVUS, announced on September 16, 2026. Under CORVUS, Tekever will supply the British Army with the AR5 long-endurance uncrewed aerial system for persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). Tekever’s Series D release described CORVUS as a programme worth up to £400 million over ten years.

The Ministry of Defence selected the AR5, which Tekever says draws on operational experience that includes more than 50,000 operational flight hours flown in Ukraine since 2022. AR5 manufacturing for the programme will be centred at the company’s Swindon facility, and CORVUS is expected to begin entering British Army service later in 2026. Tekever is separately running OVERMATCH, a five-year, £400 million UK investment programme focused on research, infrastructure and defence technology, including AI and autonomy.

For Denmark, the next steps Tekever has set out are the creation of its Danish entity, local recruitment and a phased build-up in Odense, each tied to demand and approvals. In the UK, the milestone to watch is CORVUS beginning to enter British Army service.

Safran Power Units will supply the two turbojet engines that power the Falcon, a reusable supersonic aerial target that Canada’s UVAD Technologies Inc. is developing for missile defence training. The companies announced the propulsion partnership at Euronaval in Paris on November 3, 2026, and said the program will enter its flight test phase in 2027 after ground testing in 2026.

According to Safran’s press release, the engines will let the Falcon reach supersonic speeds at low and medium altitudes while allowing rapid deployment and recovery, which the companies say makes more frequent and cost-effective training sessions possible for air, naval and missile defense operators. The release does not name the engine model or give the value of the agreement.

What the Falcon is built to do

Safran describes the Falcon as an affordable, reusable supersonic aerial target designed to support the increasingly sophisticated missile defence training required by armed forces. The release says its architecture also offers potential for broader high-speed missions beyond simulating modern threats, and that its modular architecture and autonomous flight system will allow a single operator to oversee multiple drones simultaneously.

UVAD is developing the Falcon initially for aerial target, threat-replication, and test and evaluation missions, and as a technology foundation for future Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) and advanced autonomous airpower applications, according to the release. UVAD describes the Falcon as Canada’s only supersonic uncrewed aircraft program currently in development.

David Birkett, chief executive of UVAD Technologies, said the company was “particularly pleased” to partner with Safran Power Units, which he called a globally recognised expert in high-performance and affordable turbojet engines.

“Our two companies share a common vision for high-performance, affordable defence systems capable of addressing the challenges of the future, particularly those posed by supersonic threats.”

Ghislaine Doukhan, chief executive of Safran Power Units, said the choice of its engines will make a significant contribution to the Falcon’s capabilities “in terms of supersonic flight, robustness, and cost-effectiveness.”

The two companies behind the program

UVAD Technologies

UVAD is a Canadian aerospace and defence company with operations in Alberta and British Columbia that develops advanced uncrewed aircraft and autonomous aerospace technologies. Its platform family includes the Alpine Swift UAS, which the release calls flight-proven and which serves as a technology pathfinder for the Falcon, and the 6100B Skylance geophysical survey aircraft. The company says its team uses a digitally enabled engineering approach that integrates design, advanced simulation, software development, systems integration and flight testing to move complex aircraft from concept to flight.

The ASTech awards archive lists UVAD as a 2025 finalist for Innovation of the Year for a project titled “Advanced Supersonic UAV Target Development.” That page describes the Alpine Swift as an all-electric fixed-wing UAV and credits UVAD with more than $150 million in contracts from major defence organizations, without naming them.

Safran Power Units

Safran Power Units, a subsidiary of Safran Helicopter Engines based in Toulouse, France, designs and manufactures auxiliary power units (APUs) and starting systems for civil and military aircraft, as well as turbojet engines for missiles and target drones. Safran’s company page says it was founded in 1961 by James Gaston Bayard as Microturbo and has two U.S. affiliates, in Dallas and San Diego.

The company’s turbojets cover a power range of 25 to 600 decanewtons (daN). According to Safran, they are installed in the MBDA Scalp, Exocet Block 3, Saab Dynamics RBS15 and Kongsberg NSM missiles and in the Kratos BQM-167 and BQM-177 target drones. The Falcon adds a reusable supersonic target to that list of applications.

The parent Safran group reports more than 110,000 employees and revenue of 31.3 billion euros in 2025. AirPro News has also covered other target and small-engine programs, including Griffon Aerospace’s Arrowhead threat-training drone and Kratos’s latest small turbojet flight tests.

What comes next

Following what the companies call a successful ground testing campaign in 2026, the program will enter its flight test phase in 2027, which they describe as an essential milestone toward the operational deployment of the Falcon Supersonic UAV. The release does not give a date for first flight, a launch customer or a target date for entry into service.