Viasat, parent company of Inmarsat Maritime, has reported a year-on-year decline in maritime revenues in its Q1 FY2026 results, with earnings from the sector falling approximately 5% from approx. $124 million to approx. $118 million. Overall communications revenues rose slightly, supported by growth in the company’s aviation and government business units.
The group says that one of its major priorities remains the deployment of its ViaSat-3 (VS-3) F2 and F3 satellites, both of which are expected to create a massive up-tick in available bandwidth capacity. VS-3 F2 is scheduled to ship to its launch site in a matter of weeks, while mechanical environmental testing preparations are underway for VS-3 F3.
“Each of the new VS-3 satellites is designed to enable more bandwidth capacity than our entire existing fleet – creating opportunities to grow in each of our franchise businesses,” the company said in its shareholder letter.
“For VS-3 F2 we completed implementation and testing of the corrective actions for the deployable reflectors and have begun the process of final flight installations and closeouts. We have also completed ground operations and defined launch campaign schedules and launch day operational plans with our launch partner.”
“We expect to ship VS-3 F2 to the launch site by the end of next month (September 2025). For VS-3 F3 we also completed qualification testing of the deployable reflectors and began the process of preparing the spacecraft for mechanical environmental testing by starting the installation of the deployable reflectors.”
Viasat noted that the roadmap for bringing VS-3 F3 into service has been slightly adjusted to account for potential post-shipment scheduling risks, though integration and test milestones are progressing as planned and the current plan is to have the satellite in service by the middle of next year.
The company also highlighted early adoption of its new NexusWave service as an indicator of a rebound in the maritime sector, with more than 1,000 vessels now committed with orders for the bonded connectivity platform. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines was specifically referenced in the report as a customer transitioning its fleet to NexusWave as part of its digitalisation strategy.
In addition, Arctic coverage via the GX10A and GX10B payloads is now operational for government satcom users, with commercial maritime and aviation services expected to follow later in FY2026.
