The Air Force established its COMSATCOM Pathfinder programs to demonstrate the feasibility of new, alternative acquisition and procurement models for commercial satellite, while also demonstrating new, innovative COMSATCOM capabilities.

The first Pathfinder Program – Pathfinder One – enabled the Air Force to explore acquiring COMSATCOM as an investment and not as a leased service. This involved the purchase of transponders on SES satellites that would provide connectivity for AFRICOMM. But Pathfinder One was just one of many possible Pathfinder Programs that are in discussion within the Air Force.

To learn more about the Air Force’s Pathfinder Program – including the successful Pathfinder One Program – we recently sat down with two Pathfinder experts from SES Space and Defense – Jeff Rowlison, the Vice President of Government Affairs at SES Space and Defense, and Tim Deaver, Corporate Vice President of Development and Strategy, also at ‎SES Space and Defense.

Here is what they had to say in part one of a two-part podcast series dedicated to Pathfinder:

In the next post on the GovSat Report, we’ll feature part two of this two-part podcast series. In the meantime, for additional information on the Pathfinder program, click the articles and resources below:

• Lessons Learned from Pathfinder One
• An inside look at the evolution of the military SATCOM acquisition process
• Government Space Leaders Look To Commercial Satellites for More Resilient Communications