SES-17’s coverage area makes it an important satellite for delivering mission-critical connectivity for the military. According to Amit Katti, Director of Systems Engineering at SES Space and Defense, “The satellite will…provide coverage…over the Americas, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean…[as well as] an area that is of incredible importance to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), delivering services to parts of the Arctic Circle.”

But there is more to SES-17 than its important coverage area.

The SES-17 satellite is a significant development in satellite technology, featuring a fully digital payload powered by the most powerful digital transponder processor in orbit, and nearly 200 user beams capable of delivering incredible throughputs and bandwidth to users. But the launch of SES-17 also illustrates how the commercial satellite industry has evolved its solutions to meet the unique challenges facing our modern military.

More resiliency and assuredness through multi-orbit communications
Today’s military no longer has the massive technological advantage that it used to hold in space. Our near-peer adversaries have made significant headways into the space domain and turned what was once a benign domain into an austere, warfighting domain. Some of our adversaries have even actively demonstrated the ability to leverage kinetic attacks against satellites in orbit in an effort to deny or degrade the satellite networks that have long given America’s warfighters an edge on the battlefield.

“Having a diversity of satellites allows for optimizing the best solution set while making the network more robust.” – Rick Lober, Hughes Defense

“Our ability to integrate space assets and our force capabilities at speed is a distinct advantage we have today. China and Russia recognize this and have designed means to deny us these capabilities,” explained General Curtis Michael “Mike” Scaparrotti, a retired United States Army four-star general who last served as the Commander of United States European Command, in a recent interview with the Government Satellite Report. “…we know they have developed abilities to deny operations for periods of time by electronic jamming or cyber-attacks, and that they have tested both terrestrial and space systems to destroy satellites.”

In this new environment, it’s increasingly essential that the military has the means and ability to rapidly and seamlessly transition mission-critical data from a satellite that is being denied to another that is capable of delivering essential communications.

Being able to seamlessly roll communications from a satellite in one orbit to another satellite in a different orbit can help to further complicate an adversary’s targeting calculus and make it even harder to deny or degrade our military’s communications. This is also essential should missions requirements change, and should the military need either the higher throughputs and lower latency of satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO), or the larger coverage area of satellites in GEO.

As Hughes Defense’s Rick Lober recently told the Government Satellite Report, “Having a diversity of satellites allows for optimizing the best solution set while making the network more robust.”

And this isn’t just an idea being pushed by the commercial satellite industry. It’s the current goal of the DoD. As U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations, Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, explained to attendees at a recent Mitchell Spacepower Forum, “We have got to shift the space architecture from a handful of exquisite capabilities that are very hard to defend to a more robust, more resilient architecture by design.”

But what does this need for a multi-orbit, resilient, and robust satellite network architecture have to do with SES-17?

“With a managed service model for satellite services, the government would always have the latest commercial technologies and solutions available to them. With systems like ARC in place, they’ll also have the added resiliency and capability of being able to leverage a multi-orbit constellation.” – Rashid Neighbors, SES Space and Defense

SES-17 is the first step in the integration of SES’s multi-orbit network. The spacecraft’s digital payload is supported by the Adaptive Resource Control (ARC) software, making it interoperable with SES’s second-generation O3b mPOWER satellite communications system in MEO, which is set to launch in the coming months.

The ARC software opens the door to more seamlessly transitioning satellite communications from the SES constellation of HTS satellites at GEO – including SES-17 – to the next-generation MEO satellite communications system, O3b mPOWER. This means that – should the bandwidth and latency requirements of the mission change, or in the unlikely event that a satellite service is denied by an adversary – SES could quickly and seamlessly switch between satellite services from GEO and MEO to meet the military’s requirement.

“Ultimately, our intent is to provide the U.S. Government with highly resilient, multi-orbit hybrid satellite solutions,” explained Rashid Neighbors, Vice President, Mobility and Integrated Solutions at SES Space and Defense. “While the spacecraft technology in SES-17 and the O3b mPOWER satellites is fundamentally different, the ground system will be integrated through…ARC. This allows our government customers to focus on their mission and applications and let SES Space and Defense worry about how the transport works.”

SES-17, and its support of the ARC system, make the dream of an integrated, multi-orbit satellite network architecture a reality. But it also enables another important shift – allowing the military to evolve away from the archaic and inefficient way that it has traditionally acquired satellite commercial satellite capacity.

A satellite “built for managed services”
In this new satellite reality, where multi-orbit commercial satellite services join military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) resources to build an integrated architecture, the traditional method of leasing satellite capacity on the spot market is no longer effective.

In this new reality – where military communications may need to be moved from a MILSATCOM satellite in GEO to commercial satellite service from MEO or LEO at a moment’s notice to meet mission requirements or provide mission assurance – the traditional methods of leasing satellite capacity are simply too slow.

The ARC system, and other technologies that make SES-17 more “software-enabled,” have ushered in a new generation of satellite that is, as Katti coined, “Built for managed services.” Meaning that the military and government can acquire satellite communications as a service from commercial providers, who, in turn, deliver an end-to-end solution when and where the military requires it.

“Our ability to integrate space assets and our force capabilities at speed is a distinct advantage we have today. China and Russia recognize this and have designed means to deny us these capabilities.” – General Scaparrotti, U.S. Army

Acquiring commercial satellite as a managed service ensures that the government and military are always leveraging the latest satellite technologies, and always have the requisite hardware and terrestrial infrastructure necessary to utilize it.

“With a managed service model for satellite services, the government would always have the latest commercial technologies and solutions available to them,” explained Neighbors. “With systems like ARC in place, they’ll also have the added resiliency and capability of being able to leverage a multi-orbit constellation.”

While the news of SES-17 becoming fully operational is certainly exciting, it’s not nearly as exciting as what SES-17 and other future satellites signify for our government and military. SES-17, the O3b mPOWER service, and other next-generation satellite solutions illustrate a clear solution to the challenge of a more austere space domain. They also signify a path forward towards a more integrated MILSATCOM and COMSATCOM satellite architecture that will be more assured, robust, and resilient to meet the needs of our future force.

To learn more about SES-17, click HERE.

Featured image courtesy of Thales Alenia Space.

The post SES-17 Fully Operational – Offering Glimpse into the Future of Military Satellite Networks appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

However, there is a new approach to acquiring commercial satellite services that is rapidly gaining traction across the government – a movement towards satellite managed services – that promises to bring more innovative, more affordable satellite solutions to government users. As the government begins to shift from leased capacity to this new “Satellite as a Service” approach to satellite acquisition, commercial satellite providers are working to introduce exciting new technologies that can deliver the added resiliency, scalability, and flexibility needed to meet the demands of government users.

One of these providers – SES Space and Defense– has invested heavily into new systems and satellites that will enable the company to deliver high-throughput satellite connectivity to government users from multiple orbits, ensuring that its satellite service offering will be capable of meeting even the most bandwidth-hungry missions that absolutely demand assurance and resiliency.

A cornerstone in the company’s plan to offer multi-orbit connectivity to government users as a service is the recently-launched SES-17 satellite, a revolutionary High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) that was sent into orbit in October of this year.

To learn more about the SES-17 satellite, why the company refers to it as a satellite that was “built for managed services,” and what makes satellite managed services so attractive to the United States government and military, we recently sat down with Amit Katti and Rashid Neighbors of SES Space and Defense.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): SES-17 was launched in late October, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s in use already, correct? What is the current status of the SES-17 satellite, and when is it expected to go into service?

Amit Katti: SES-17 was successfully launched onboard an Ariane 5 launcher operated by Arianespace from a spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on October 23, 2021. Currently, the satellite is on its way to geosynchronous orbit (GEO).

Carolyn Cuppernull: Once in orbit, [SES-17] will undergo in-orbit testing for optimal performance with the goal to commence services on June 15, 2022. So, anticipate that SES-17 will commence service in about four months.

GSR: Recently, when SES has talked about the exciting new technologies that it’s implementing in its spacecraft and ground segment, the company is touting its upcoming O3b mPOWER MEO satellite solution. Is SES-17 a part of that? If not, what is the difference?

Rashid Neighbors: SES’ O3b mPOWER service is a low-latency, high throughput satellite service offering that is anticipated to launch in Q1 of 2022. That service utilizes High Throughput Satellites (HTS) at an orbit closer to Earth – at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) – to deliver incredibly high throughputs at extremely low latency.

While SES-17 is an HTS, much like the satellites that power the O3b mPOWER service, it will operate in GEO.

There are many reasons why a government agency or military organization would want to utilize a commercial satellite service delivered from GEO. Depending on the mission and the use case, a GEO satellite solution with a larger coverage area may be ideal. Or the data being transferred via the satellite may not suffer from slightly higher latency – such as voice data.

Ultimately, our intent is to provide the U.S. Government with highly resilient, multi-orbit hybrid satellite solutions. While the spacecraft technology in SES-17 and the O3b mPOWER satellites is fundamentally different, the ground system will be integrated through a centralized system called ARC. This allows our government customers to focus on their mission and applications and let SES Space and Defense worry about how the transport works.

GSR: You mentioned a system called ARC. What is that specifically, and what does it do?

Amit Katti: ARC functions like the motherboard for a computer. It basically creates a common interface for different processing units.

With ARC, we can coordinate mission assurance across different technologies and orbits. We can also manage the space and ground segment resources, together, for our U.S. government and military customers.

GSR: In our past conversations, you’ve referred to SES-17 as a satellite built for managed services. How is a satellite managed service different from how the government and military have traditionally acquired satellite capacity? Why would the government and military want to make a move towards managed services?

Carolyn Cuppernull: Typically, the government has worked with multiple commercial satellite service providers to lease or purchase wholesale bandwidth that it then distributes to its users, as needed. Ultimately, this system of purchasing capacity on the spot market was expensive for the government and limited its ability to leverage new technologies being leveraged by the commercial satellite industry.

A recent trend that we’re seeing in the government and military is a movement towards a managed service model. In this model, everything that is necessary for an end-to-end satellite network is delivered as a service. The satellite capacity, the ground hardware – including terminals and antennas – are all included in the service.

Rashid Neighbors: With a managed service model for satellite services, the government would always have the latest commercial technologies and solutions available to them. With systems like ARC in place, they’ll also have the added resiliency and capability of being able to leverage a multi-orbit constellation. This means they would have access to low-latency, high-throughput connectivity from MEO, as well as wideband high-throughput connectivity from GEO, and they would be able to seamlessly switch between those resources based on their mission requirements.

The government and military rarely operate in static conditions. The environment changes, the mission shifts and evolves. Having a satellite managed service that gives them access to the latest and greatest technologies, as well as a multi-orbit satellite constellation ensures that they’ll always have the communications and connectivity they need to accomplish their mission – even if mission parameters or requirements change.

The technologies in SES-17, and the development of the ARC system, make this satellite a natural fit for the “Satellite as a Service” model, since it enables us to listen to the government’s and military’s requirements, and tailor a multi-orbit satellite solution that meets their needs and helps them accomplish their mission.

GSR: What is the coverage area of SES-17? Where will the government and military be able to leverage the services of this satellite, in particular?

Amit Katti: SES-17 will service the majority of North and South America. The satellite will also provide coverage to an area that is of incredible importance to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), delivering services to parts of the Arctic Circle. Coverage will extend east into Africa, and cover a large part of Europe, as well.

SES-17 also offers coverage over much of the Atlantic Ocean, delivering seamless connectivity for maritime and air travel between the Americas and Europe.

To learn more about SES-17 and its potential to enable multi-orbit satellite managed services to the government and military, click HERE.

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