Qinetiq, a U.K.-based technology company, will provide services and hardware for testing Europe’s proposed Galileo satellite navigation system under a contract with the Galileo Inreach Consortium, Qinetiq announced May 31.

The consortium, led by Belgium’s Septentrio Satellite Navigation, is in the second phase of a contract with the European Space Agency to develop the Galileo second source test user segment for the in-orbit validation phase for Galileo.

Under a four-year contract valued at 7.3 million euro ($9.4 million), the Qinetiq Centre for Propagation Analysis and Atmospheric Research will perform ionospheric propagation analysis, which is intended to validate the expected performance of the system. Qinetiq also will develop security modules for the Public Regulated Service test user receiver.