Plessey Co PLc has beaten GEC Marconi Ltd to a UKP50m four-year fixed-price contract for UK Military Satellite ground facilities in support of the Skynet 4 satellite, and pointedly declares that it and Marconi are the only major suppliers of such systems in the UK. The Plessey contract calls for it to construct and equip operations and communications centres and supply additional mobile satellite communications centres to form an integrated and reliably secure network that can easily be altered to meet changing circumstances. The company moved into the satellite business in 1980, and says it has since built up comprehensive expertise in it.
