EMS Satellite Networks (SatNet), a division of EMS Technologies Inc., announced May 20 it signed a joint venture agreement with Infinium Ltd. of India, under which SatNet will supply DVB-RCS equipment and services to customers in India. The joint venture will be known as Infinium-EMS (India) Ltd. The joint venture also will operate a fully redundant DVB-RCS hub in Ahmedabad, India. The hub will be used to offer services with strategic partners to end customers across India. The joint venture’s mandate includes sourcing components locally and considering the local manufacturing and/or assembly of certain equipment. Financial terms of the joint venture were not disclosed.

In other EMS news, the company’s EMS Satcom division signed a three-year maintenance contract with the U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency to ensure that the U.K. COSPAS-SARSAT (the international satellite system for search and rescue of ships and aircraft in distress) ground-segment infrastructure is maintained at the highest level. The contract is valued at $2 million.

EMS’s Defense and Space Systems division also was awarded a contract from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to provide a front-end switch assembly (FESA) for the Oceansat 2 satellite. The contract is valued at $1.6 million. FESA, a Ku-band duplexer, will consist of a T/R module that is required to direct the transmit signals from primary and redundant TWTAs to the Oceansat 2 antenna and to direct receive signals to primary and redundant receivers. Oceansat 2, designed by ISRO, will be the next- generation satellite-based ocean observation system that will study surface winds and ocean surface strata.