Netherlands to join WGS program to boost military bandwidth

The Netherlands is planning to join the Wideband Global Satcom program to boost its military satellite communications capacity, reports Nicholas Fiorenza at Aviation Week's Ares Blog.

The WGS program, which serves the United States, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg and New Zealand, will have nine satellites in orbit providing worldwide coverage by 2018, according to the blog.

The Netherlands military has chosen to participate in the program because it offers satellite bandwidth for less cost and with more reliability than is available commercially, officials with the Netherlands Ministry of Defense said.