Sweden’s Saab Ericsson Space and Austria’s Austrian Aerospace have been selected to develop and manufacture onboard equipment for the first four satellites for Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system, the companies announced.

Galileo, intended to be a civilian alternative and complement to the U.S. GPS system, will consist of 30 satellites and is scheduled to become operational in 2011. The procurement and operation of the complete system is intended to be executed by an industrial consortium under a public-private partnership scheme, which is presently being negotiated with the European Union.