Cobham Satcom is one of those names everyone in the industry knows because their equipment is bolted onto ships, vehicles, and bases where downtime is not an option. The company is essentially the legacy of Thrane & Thrane, folded into Cobham years ago, and then sold off to Solix Group in 2024 when the wider Cobham conglomerate got carved up by private equity. That sale stripped away the corporate noise and left behind a pure satellite hardware business that does maritime, land-mobile, and defense terminals.

The hardware catalog is not glamorous, but it is extensive. Sea Tel and SAILOR dominate maritime VSAT and GMDSS, EXPLORER covers land terminals from backpack units to drive-away antennas, and TRACKER gives defense users transportable X/Y terminals for GEO and MEO. Their newest TACTICAL TRACKER models are already in the certification queue for the U.S. Space Force’s WGS system, which says something about trust. The marine side has also been refreshed with new distress and safety terminals certified for Inmarsat and Iridium, which keeps them embedded in the mandatory end of the market.

Cobham knows LEO and flat panels are coming, but it has not reinvented itself around them. Instead it has chosen the safer path: making sure its existing gear is compatible with new constellations and dressing it up as “future-ready.” The company recently partnered with Space42 to launch a rugged IP NEO L-band terminal pitched at governments and aid groups, but that is more an incremental product extension than a new direction.

The strength of Cobham Satcom is the same as it was twenty years ago. The gear is rugged, certified, and supported worldwide. That makes them the go-to supplier when reliability is more important than bandwidth, which is why they remain the incumbent on navy fleets, cargo ships, and government contracts. The weakness is also unchanged. They are a hardware vendor exposed to service provider cycles and stuck competing with Intellian on the commercial maritime side. If flat panels prove themselves at sea, Cobham’s mechanical domes will start to look dated.

The company is not trying to be disruptive, nor does it have to be. It survives by being the default choice in regulated and defense-driven markets where customers buy on certification and reliability, not on promises of innovation. Cobham Satcom is not the future of mobility satcom, but it remains the dependable present.