Recently, SES Space & Defense’s G RamosCarr stopped by the Government Satellite Report to pull back the curtain on how SES Space & Defense will be delivering MEO and GEO services at the edge for DoD missions, as well as explore the various DoD use cases, applications, and workloads that will benefit from infrastructure at the edge.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): What use cases exist for AWS MDC units in the DoD? Why would the DoD want to deploy these units to Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) environments?

G RamosCarr: The DoD operates globally, meaning it has to maintain data sovereignty and comply with specific data classification requirements, both when deployed and at home, just to ensure that data is protected.

With the DoD’s transition from on-prem/hybrid solutions to commercial clouds that are approved for the U.S. government, the Department is going to be more reliant on remote edge computing environments in scenarios where comms aren’t as resilient as they are stateside.

Deploying in any environment where an adversary is present and negatively impacting communications – whether denying or disrupting – is a prime example of why a tool like the AWS MDC is imperative. But, even in situations where bad weather is limiting connectivity, having different architectures like MEO with a GEO fallback, a good PACE plan is critical.

“An AWS MDC unit elevates what you can move out to the edge. The compute devices can now become resident in a forward operating base or in some other kind of deployed scenario. That gives users access to the most important data, housed locally at the edge.” -G RamosCarr

In any mission, you must always be able to operate, and that’s why there is a major need for those tools that are running in the cloud. Having the ability to deploy the most important data or tools at the edge is something the AWS MDC will help achieve at scale for a larger deployment, or a unit with a higher amount of data production.

No matter what scenario they end up in, with an AWS MDC, they’re able to continue operating just like they would be stateside when they were doing training.

GSR: Are there any particular applications or workloads that you think might be driving this need for infrastructure at the edge?

G RamosCarr: Imagery analysis is a perfect example. Also, IoT is another application that drives this need, especially when you need to pull a lot of different metrics on a regular basis. It’s fantastic to be able to import a big pool of data into a data lake in the cloud, which will allow users to leverage the computing resources of full data centers across the U.S..

But in a scenario where you might be offline for an hour, or a couple of days, you’re going to want to still have access to a subset of that full data set. You’ll want to be able to take the most important data and do some processing at the edge, and be able to leverage that intel that you just developed immediately.

GSR: If the DoD is deploying these units to the tactical edge, why would they need low-latency, high throughput satellite connectivity? What benefit or advantage would the DoD gain from connecting AWS MDC units?

G RamosCarr: An AWS MDC unit elevates what you can move out to the edge. The compute devices can now become resident in a forward operating base or in some other kind of deployed scenario. That gives users access to the most important data, housed locally at the edge.

“MEO, as far as cloud operations go, can provide a high throughput and low latency connection very similar to a traditional fiber optic connection. This incredibly high bandwidth, high speed connection can enable those services.” -G RamosCarr

However, an AWS MDC on the battlefield can’t compete against the ability of a data center back in the U.S. to be able to compute or consolidate information and process it. It’s not going to be able to do it on the same level.

This is why the military would want to connect AWS MDC units through high throughput, low latency, fiber-like connectivity. MEO satellite connectivity allows these workloads and systems to operate in a much more efficient manner – with some of the work being done at the edge, and other workloads in the cloud.

MEO, as far as cloud operations go, can provide a high throughput and low latency connection very similar to a traditional fiber optic connection. This incredibly high bandwidth, high speed connection can enable those services.

Before, users would have to use some kind of edge compute because of their higher-latency GEO link, or they would have to reduce the amount of throughput and the amount of data that they were sending back, because of the reduced capability of the GEO link and the latency.

A low latency MEO connection enables a whole new world where practically anything can be transmitted quickly and with minimal latency.

GSR: It was recently announced that SES Space & Defense was chosen by AWS to provide connectivity to the AWS MDC units. Why was SES Space & Defense a good fit for this?

G RamosCarr: We’ve had a lot of great engagements and have a great working partnership with AWS, and we’ve supported them on a number of different opportunities. I think we have a differentiated offering – owning both a GEO and a MEO fleet.

“I think O3b mPOWER really opens the door for scalability on our side. We’ve been able to show a differentiated capability with 10 beams per satellite. There is also great flexibility that O3b mPOWER is going to bring to the table, and inherent security features that come with that constellation.” -G RamosCarr

Obviously, there’s a value to every satellite connection, especially when you have zero connectivity. But us being able to bring a resiliency plan to them, and it being relatively turnkey for them, has probably been the biggest differentiator. We’re able to ensure that the military has connectivity – whether it be MEO or GEO connectivity options.

Going further, what MEO enables – as far as cloud operations – is so much more advanced that what the military is going to get on other constellations. The speed, capacity, and latency are second to none. We also have the ability to provide an SLA and ensure that dedicated connectivity is up and available, when that isn’t always the case with other services.

GSR: SES’s O3b mPOWER next-generation MEO service will soon be available for the DoD. How can this service benefit the DoD? What new functionality or capabilities will it enable for the military?

G RamosCarr: I think O3b mPOWER really opens the door for scalability on our side. We’ve been able to show a differentiated capability with 10 beams per satellite. There is also great flexibility that O3b mPOWER is going to bring to the table, and inherent security features that come with that constellation.

It’s going to open the aperture as far as being able to more successfully deploy our assets to support our warfighters.

To read more about how SES Space & Defense and AWS will assist the U.S. Department of Defense, click HERE.

The post AWS and SES Partner to Enable Edge Compute and Cloud Access on the Battlefield appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Understanding that cloud customers will rely on satellite to access their cloud services and cloud-native applications in geographically remote and isolated areas, Microsoft recently launched Azure Space, and announced a number of innovative partnerships with satellite providers, such as SES Space and Defense. They also introduced Azure Orbital and the Azure Modular Data Center, which are designed to help make cloud connectivity at the tactical edge easier for government cloud users.

In the second part of our illuminating interview with Steve, we set out to learn more about these exciting announcements from Azure Space. We also discussed how innovations in the space and satellite industry are opening the door for the ubiquitous, global connectivity necessary to power government cloud and digital transformation initiatives.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): While our readers are undoubtedly familiar with Microsoft Azure, they may not be as familiar with Azure Space, which I understand is a relatively new entity. Can you tell our readers a bit more about Azure Space and its mission?

Steve Kitay: Microsoft publicly launched Azure Space a year ago, although we’ve been working on standing it up for more than two years. The mission of Azure Space is bringing the cloud and space together to empower our customers both on and off the planet.

Our approach to Azure Space is through partnerships and enabling an ecosystem. Microsoft isn’t building and launching its own satellites, but rather partnering with others that do to provide connectivity solutions both to space systems, and anywhere on earth.

We also have cutting-edge AI and machine learning (ML) algorithms to drive insights from the data coming from space. We are also supporting the developer community with unique simulation and digital engineering capabilities. And lastly, while we’re not building or launching our own satellites, we’re bringing our innovation into space.

For example, HP has a computer on the ISS called the Spaceborne computer that we’ve connected to the hyperscale cloud to enable researchers and astronauts to do more. There are a variety of innovation areas that we’re exploring and working on both on and off the planet.

GSR: What is Microsoft Azure Orbital? What does it enable government cloud users to do?

Steve Kitay: Azure Orbital is a fully managed, cloud-based ground station as a service that allows users to communicate with their satellite constellation. This allows them to download data, uplink commands, and process data in the cloud. It also enables Azure services to be deployed to generate products for their customers.

“Governments worldwide are looking for these kinds of connectivity solutions to meet their needs. What we’re doing with SES is bringing the connectivity and compute together so that they’re not just moving the data, but they’re deriving insights and understanding from that data.” – Steve Kitay

Ultimately, it provides modern ground segment technologies, allowing satellite operators to focus on their space mission and product, offloading the responsibility of deployment and maintenance of ground station assets.

The system that we’ve built out is on top of Azure’s global infrastructure and low-latency global fiber networks. The capability of Azure Orbital is building upon a partner ecosystem that includes KSAT, ViaSat, Kratos, Emergent Space Technologies, and several others.

GSR: What about the Microsoft Modular Data Center (MDC)? What is the MDC and what does it do? How is it different from other data centers? What can it enable for government cloud users?

Steve Kitay: We have a suite of edge capabilities, and the MDC is one of them. The MDC and our other edge devices enable the use of Azure from anywhere in the world.

MDC gives customers the capability to deploy a modular data center to remote locations, or to augment existing infrastructure. A major differentiator for the MDC is that customers can run the unit with full network connectivity, or in situations where it’s occasionally connected or even fully disconnected.

“Microsoft isn’t building and launching its own satellites, but rather partnering with others that do to provide connectivity solutions both to space systems, and anywhere on earth.” – Steve Kitay

We have also built in an ability to have satellite connectivity with SES, and other providers, to enable the data center to be connected back to the hyperscale cloud.

GSR: In a recent press release, it was announced that Microsoft would leverage the SES multi-orbit satellite system to give government entities to cloud resources practically anywhere on the globe. Why is a multi-orbit satellite solution ideal for this? What advantages does a multi-orbit constellation or service have over one that is in a single, dedicated orbit?

Steve Kitay: SES is a close partner of Microsoft, and their multi-orbit satellite constellation allows us to better service our customers.

By enabling our customers to access different satellite services at different orbits, we’re giving them the choice and flexibility to choose the right satellite service for their needs and requirements.

Satellite services from different orbits have different advantages, and different satellite services may be optimal for a particular customer’s needs and requirements. By enabling access to multiple options, Microsoft ensures that they have different options they need to meet their needs in regard to pricing, bandwidth, capacity, latency and other factors.

“Azure Orbital is a fully managed, cloud-based ground station as a service that allows users to communicate with their satellite constellation. This allows them to download data, uplink commands, and process data in the cloud.” – Steve Kitay

Our approach brings together partnerships and products to create a comprehensive and resilient satellite tool and solutions that meet the needs of our customers.

GSR: SES is on the precipice of launching a new satellite service – SES O3b mPOWER. What will this new service mean for government and military cloud users? How can it change what is currently possible at the tactical edge?

Steve Kitay: O3b mPOWER is a satellite constellation that we’re specifically partnering with and that they’re leveraging Azure Orbital for ground infrastructure. It’s a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite service that delivers a tremendous increase in flexibility and throughput speed, and cloud-scale capacity to Azure locations across the Earth. And, ultimately, what that means for customers is that fiber-equivalent connectivity will now be available wherever users are located – including in the air, at sea, or on the ground in remote sites in geographically-isolated regions.

O3b mPOWER is delivering secure and resilient network architecture for robust connectivity whether the mission is establishing a secure network at a tactical edge or deploying a UAV for live HD video along a border. Governments worldwide are looking for these kinds of connectivity solutions to meet their needs. What we’re doing with SES is bringing the connectivity and compute together so that they’re not just moving the data, but they’re deriving insights and understanding from that data.

For additional information about how Ob3 mPOWER can enable next-generation technologies on the battlefield, click HERE to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper, “High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications.”

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This digital transformation was arguably kickstarted by the widespread adoption of the cloud and cloud resources across the government. And it’s being driven forward by cloud-native applications that are being developed, deployed, and hosted in the cloud, where they can be accessed by government and military personnel whenever and wherever the mission requires.

While this digital transformation will only result in the government becoming more effective and efficient, it can only succeed if connectivity and access to cloud resources are ubiquitous across the globe.

The connectivity required for government and military organizations to access and utilize cloud services at the tactical edge is most effectively delivered by satellite. This is creating new collaborations and partnerships between those that operate satellite networks, and the organizations that provide cutting-edge cloud services.

One of the cloud providers leading the pack in embracing satellite connectivity is Microsoft Azure, which recently launched Azure Space, and announced a number of innovative partnerships with satellite providers, such as SES Space and Defense.

We recently sat down with Steve Kitay, the Senior Director of Azure Space at Microsoft, to discuss the trends driving the need for satellite and cloud partnerships, and how cloud services delivered via satellite could revolutionize how governments operate.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): Transitioning to the cloud has been a major initiative for the government over the course of the last few years. What types of cloud use cases are we seeing in the government? What different types of applications and workloads are being moved to the cloud by government agencies? Are mission-critical workloads making their way into the cloud?

Steve Kitay: Government agencies want to benefit from commercial cloud innovation. They want to take advantage of its speed, its scale, and its agility. Transitioning to the cloud reduces costs, provides access to the latest technologies, and diminishes the burden of having to maintain their own legacy infrastructure.

We see government agencies moving a range of workloads to the cloud to rapidly grow their mission capabilities. At the start of the COVID pandemic, we saw a rapid shift to cloud services to enable secure remote work environments through Azure Commercial and Government Clouds, and through the Office 365 productivity suites.

We’re seeing this shift to the cloud across a range of agencies. We’re working with a number of agencies, in particular, to help them use the cloud to solve their mission problems. The Department of Agriculture has leveraged a project called Farm Beats that accesses Azure’s repositories of analytics tools to understand data, and uses AI to help farmers cut costs, increase yields and sustainably grow crops that are more resilient to threats like climate change.

“When we bring (IoT and hybrid infrastructure) together, with AI running across these systems, we enter into an era of Intelligent Edge – a continually expanding set of connected systems and devices that gather and analyze information close to the physical world where the data resides and is harvested.” – Steve Kitay

The Department of Defense (DoD) is working on building out its enterprise cloud capabilities. Branches within the DoD, such as the Air Force, have deployed their own instances. Air Force Cloud One is a good example of a military branch using the cloud to provide foundational cloud capabilities, including networking, monitoring, access control, and identity management.

GSR: Are we seeing the need across different levels and organizations within the government for access to cloud solutions in the field, off-grid, and at the tactical edge? What is driving this requirement? What types of capabilities and applications are they looking to access?

Steve Kitay: The U.S. Government has been clear that they are trying to tap into commercial innovation to unlock new mission scenarios that were simply not possible before. There are two trends that we’re seeing in the government that really illustrate that.

The first trend is the Internet of Things (IoT), which utilizes smart sensors, connected devices, and other network-enabled endpoints to change the way that agencies approach problems. From equipment maintenance, to measuring air quality, to smart cities, and even military outposts, they’re implementing devices that are cloud-connected by default.

The other trend is movement towards hybrid infrastructure – or the integration of traditional datacenter infrastructure, edge devices, and the public cloud. This gives the government access to more compute capabilities in even the world’s most remote locations.

When we bring these two technology trends together, with AI running across these systems, we enter into an era of Intelligent Edge – a continually expanding set of connected systems and devices that gather and analyze information close to the physical world where the data resides and is harvested. This enables them to get real-time insights and immersive experiences that are highly responsive and contextually aware.

There is a space program that is a great example of the Intelligent Edge called the Casino Program, which was done with the Defense Innovation Unit in support of the U.S. Space Force. The rising number of satellites proliferating in low earth orbit (LEO) presents a new data challenge for the ground segment of missions—a segment that is often overlooked.

The Casino Program Office demonstrated fast, flexible, and extensible cloud commercial capabilities for ground processing in support of defense missions.  In this project, the joint Ball Aerospace and Microsoft team demonstrated the ability to transmit overhead, persistent infrared data through commercial satellites to the ground and then be processed both in the hyperscale Azure data center, as well as directly to a tactical vehicle in the field that was equipped with an Azure stack edge device.

“The need for bandwidth and cloud services in remote locations is a large and growing global challenge. The alignment and integration of the Azure cloud with satellites and terrestrial networks further enables the connected, Intelligent Edge…” – Steve Kitay

In this scenario, the overhead satellites transmitted the images of the environment, and that data was then pushed to both Azure and the Azure stack edge device where machine learning algorithms processed the images and detected certain activities and features. This machine learning identification generated insights which were converted into messages and disseminated to multiple endpoints.

This project represents a huge leap forward in reducing the time to actionable insight—if users are on the ground in a tactical edge vehicle or located at a command center, users can obtain necessary information accurately, quickly, and securely.

GSR: How else could access to cloud resources at the tactical edge or on the battlefield impact our warfighters? What could it enable them to do? What services/capabilities could it make possible for them?

Steve Kitay: Well, another great example is the Army’s IVAS program, which is bringing state-of-the-art cloud and mixed reality capability to soldiers at the tactical edge.

The IVAS headset, which is based on HoloLens and augmented by Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that keeps soldiers safer and makes them more effective. The program delivers enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing, and decision making for a variety of scenarios.

GSR: Microsoft has been working with satellite providers – including SES – to enable remote, off-grid access to cloud resources. Why is satellite the right choice for this?

Steve Kitay: Satellite is the right choice because space provides is a global perspective. It enables us to connect people anywhere, whether they’re in the middle of the ocean, the desert, or anywhere else on the Earth.

What is changing now with satellite communications is the type of services being offered. New services are now available with higher bandwidth and lower latencies. And space-generated data is growing exponentially, which requires expanded ground control capabilities, as well as data processing, storage, and analytics to turn that data into knowledge and actionable insights.

The need for bandwidth and cloud services in remote locations is a large and growing global challenge. The alignment and integration of the Azure cloud with satellites and terrestrial networks further enables the connected, Intelligent Edge that I referenced earlier.

For additional information about how Ob3 mPOWER can enable next-generation technologies on the battlefield, click HERE to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper, “High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications.”

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On Wednesday, September 8, SATELLITE held the “Reducing Ground Infrastructure Costs in the New Space Supply-Chain” session, where Leaf Space, IT’s U.S. Managing Director, Jai Dialani, moderated a panel discussion that included:

• Assaf Cohen, Global Vice President Sales and Marketing, SpaceBridge Inc.
• Stuart Daughtridge, Vice President, Kratos
• Paul Mattear, Principal Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services
• Sergy A. Mummert, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Americas, SES
• Richard Schgallis, Executive Vice President, Space and Communications USA, Safran Data Systems

There is always constant speculation about the “future” of the space economy, and how it will include increased demands for satellite services and capabilities, higher speeds, and ubiquitous access. But the experts on this panel explained that these high demands already exist and will only be growing larger in the coming years. But, there is one huge roadblock standing in the way to satisfying these needs.

Over the past decade, the technological improvements that have taken place in the space layer have been monumental. According to Daughtridge, these technological advancements have equipped software defined satellites with “unbelievable capabilities.” And the wide array of missions that the space layer can support are vast. Today’s satellites have the ability to enable orbital transport, Earth observation, IoT, broadband communications, and cislunar missions.

According to Schgallis, “We are rapidly approaching this point where systems will become multi-mission capable, with higher and higher data rates, and multi-band terminals…There’s this goal to make things as widely compatible for economies of scale as possible.”

“The ground segment needs to catch up to basically enable those capabilities that have been put in the spacecraft.” – Stuart Daughtridge

The issue that is preventing the deployment of these services is that the ground segment systems meant to direct and control these satellite missions are years behind in their own development, rendering a satellite’s potential capabilities untapped and unused.

And this untapped space layer potential can translate into major losses for satellite providers. “The ground segment’s behind,” said Daughtridge. “The ground segment needs to catch up to basically enable those capabilities that have been put in the spacecraft. Because right now, it’s really hard to monetize the capabilities that those satellites have.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter how great a satellite is if the ground segment can’t support it. So what can be done to catch these ground segments up?

According to Mattear, “One of the issues that we have with ground infrastructure is a lack of standards across the board.” As the satellite industry continues to move towards utilizing more partner-developed software defined systems, there must be a standard that they can develop towards. “Otherwise, you end up with a single stovepipe system,” said Mattear. “And that stovepipe system doesn’t let you monetize.”

The consequences from the lack of interoperability spread far beyond satellite providers. The U.S. military is working to embrace a combined MILSATCOM and COMSATCOM architecture that will deliver the increased satellite bandwidth they need for today’s network-enabled operations, and give them access to the innovation of the commercial satellite industry. However, the lack of interoperability in ground networks and hardware is making this combined architecture difficult to achieve.

“One of the issues that we have with ground infrastructure is a lack of standards across the board.” – Paul Mattear

According to Frank Backes, senior vice president for Federal Space at Kratos, “Unfortunately, multiple organizations independently pursuing their own mission needs have produced a number of ground-based proprietary satellite communication solutions, which have created a lack of interoperability between different commercial services and the armed forces. Those same proprietary solutions remain roadblocks to a dynamic SATCOM infrastructure supporting communication for an evolving military theater.”

Through standardization, satellite and ground system providers would be able to implement solutions and services that would reduce ground infrastructure costs, and, according to Mattear, “allow that to be monetized by other customers, help that symbiotic chain generate revenue across the board, and more importantly, support the end customer.”

But how does that standardization happen? All the panelists agreed that virtualization and digitization, like moving towards cloud technologies, are key.

According to Mummert digitization and virtualization are not only game changers in reducing ground infrastructure costs, but they also provide opportunities for new service models. “Having more infrastructure distributed across a global network, like AWS…is really a game changer for the satellite operators.”

With the promises of being able to move a lot of the work into cloud environments, and making the access compatible, no matter where the customer is, is “opening up a lot of doors” according to Schgallis. “I’m very excited about these opportunities, and our organization is actively working in this vein with as much virtualization and cloud processing as possible.”

Virtualization also accelerates the move from purpose-built hardware to mission unique software. “In software applications, especially in a cloud environment where you can spin up service chains and things like that, you can get the resiliency and the scalability that a cloud offers,” explained Daughtridge. “It allows you to have flexibilities for multiple different missions, with the same basic generic hardware, because you can change the personality of the infrastructure.”

Implementing these service models, through virtualization, means that satellite provider customers who are used to consuming cloud resources in the terrestrial world, can now have access to them via satellite. “The model makes sense to them,” said Mummert. “The interoperability is very important to them. It just enables a whole new ecosystem and economy.”

“We want standards. We want to drive scale for the industry. I think this is the right direction, but it needs more work. But we’ll get there.” – Sergy Mummert

But this does pose a challenge for ground segment developers, such as panelist Assaf Cohen. According to Cohen, “From the ground segment perspective…we have a lot of complexities. We have to deal with many new technologies with many orbits.” He explained that the challenges lie within developing the software to cope with all of the hardware challenges.

“We have to be interoperable,” explained Cohen. “To connect all these dots and implement the standards, we are an integral part and not just the one supporting the network.” He went on to say that the challenges get even more complicated because everything must become interoperable in real time.

To remedy these challenges, several groups have popped up within the industry to support a standardization dialogue. And Mummert happens to be on one of them. “We want standards,” said Mummert. “We want to drive scale for the industry. I think this is the right direction, but it needs more work. But we’ll get there.”

In the end, all of the issues of standardization and virtualization comes down to the partner ecosystem coming together to solve these immense challenges. According to Mummert, when industry partners cross-collaborate, “You open up these doors and create interoperability and opportunities for things to be created on your platform.”

The post How ground segment systems are rendering innovative satellite capabilities useless appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

On Wednesday, September 8, SATELLITE held “The Future of Global Satellite Connectivity” general session, where SATELLITE 2021 Chair, Jeffrey Hill, moderated a panel discussion that included:

• Steve Collar, CEO of SES
• Jonathan Hofeller, Vice President of Starlink Commercial Sales
• Brian Barritt, Leader at Connectivity @ Facebook
• Kevin Steen, CEO of ST Engineering iDirect

Global connectivity is an increasingly important topic for government and military organizations today. As digital transformation initiatives and network-enabled platforms and systems continue to make their way into government organizations, the need for connectivity at the edge becomes more mission-critical. Afterall, government employees in the field and military personnel at the tactical edge can only access network-enabled and software-enabled systems if they have connectivity.

But it’s not just about connecting government employees and military personnel.

As government becomes increasingly online and digital, constituents also need connectivity if they’re going to be able to effectively and efficiently access government information, and citizen services. And organizations like schools, hospitals, and other government organizations will only suffer from an increasing digital divide if they can’t access next-generation digital tools and services.

But, in 2021, is connectivity really an issue? Unfortunately, the panel’s answer was overwhelmingly, “yes.”

“There’s still over 3.5 billion people on earth that lack internet access,” said Barritt. “And the problem of connecting the unconnected is one that’s highly related to population density around the world.”

That population density problem that Barritt referenced is simply one of economics for terrestrial network providers. It simply doesn’t make financial sense for terrestrial network providers to invest in extending their networks to places like rural America, geographically-isolated locations, and areas with small populations because they may never see a return on that advancement.

But that’s one area where satellite can be a solution.

According to Barritt, for population dense areas that have the best economic development, fiber will take the lead in building out connectivity. But he also pointed out that terrestrial networks alone will not enable ubiquitous connectivity on a global level. Satellites will inevitably be the bridge that ushers in connectivity to every part of the world.

“You can’t solve the problem, especially in rural areas, without satellite connectivity,” said Barritt. “It’s an absolutely vital piece of the connected ecosystem.”

And that’s a problem that the panelists representing commercial satellite providers were more than eager to tackle.

When asked to explain the mission of SES, Collar answered that the company’s purpose – as well as his personal purpose – is to do the extraordinary in space to deliver experiences on the ground. Collar explained that the “extraordinary” aspect speaks to how hard it is to conquer the incredibly difficult space environment that SES satellites are launched into, while delivery pertains to the broadcast and network side of the satellite connectivity business.

When the extraordinary meets delivery, combined with satellite capability that extends reach and connectivity to the edge, Collar said that it is possible to deliver the most “amazing experiences ever on Earth.”

Steen expressed that there is a sense of fulfillment that comes with providing connectivity to schools, disaster relief teams, and government defenses around the world. According to Steen, this sense of fulfillment completely aligns with ST Engineering iDirect’s overall purpose, which is “supporting customers who reach those end users and support the enterprises.”

This sentiment was echoed by Collar, who referred to satellite as, “…a sort of a terrestrial alternative in the parts of the world where…terrestrial doesn’t exist yet.”

And while satellite has the potential to deliver the connectivity necessary to bring digital services to governments – and their constituents –in even the most remote or isolated of geographies, there is still one major problem; who pays for it?

Hill closed the session by asking the panelists about their views on whether satellite technology should be subsidized, as well as what steps they would like to see from the federal government.

According to Collar, there is an expressed interest in subsidizing satellite technology from governments around the world. He explained that, for the most part, government investments in space would fall into one of three buckets: rural inclusion, the strategic importance of space for defense, and the space economy.

Regardless of who pays for the delivery of connectivity via satellite, there’s no argument that the need for ubiquitous connectivity is already immense, and only growing.

“One thing that doesn’t really get questioned is whether the need for broadband and the need for connectivity is going to continue to grow,” Collar explained. “…is it going to continue to grow extremely quickly? I think the answer to that is yes.”

With digital transformation among the largest trend across all levels of government, it’s rather obvious to see why that need for broadband is increasing. If governments are going to continue to embrace digital solutions and network-enabled systems in their operations, connectivity becomes absolutely mission-critical. And as IT services and tools continue to reshape healthcare, education, and other essential services, a lack of connectivity will only create a dangerous digital divide.

This panel discussion made it abundantly clear that satellite can offer a solution, but governments may need to be willing to invest to make that a reality.

The post Satellite executives discuss the future of global connectivity at SATELLITE 2021 appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

During our conversation, the SATCOM Expert explained how latency is a roadblock to embracing advanced technologies, including augmented reality (AR) and cloud solutions, in theater, and why removing latency from the equation can improve military operations and decision-making.

In the second part of our discussion, we asked about the differences in throughput and capacity between traditional GEO satellites and the next-generation HTS spacecraft that will comprise the mPOWER constellation at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). We asked about security and mission assurance, and the benefits that next-generation satellites can deliver in this area, and we talked about the other tertiary benefits of mPOWER that should excite senior leaders in the Army.

Here is the second part of our conversation:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): What is connectivity typically like at the very tip of the spear? What kind of capabilities does this enable at the Forward Operating Base (FOB)? What is limiting the capabilities that the Army can access in the field?

SATCOM Expert: For a standard GEO satellite, the maximum on a transponder size would be 72 MHz per transponder. The ability to push anything higher is limited and finite. Not only do you have a constellation that’s sitting farther out in space in geostationary orbit, but it’s also limited as to what it can do per transponder and per satellite.

The ability to aggregate multiple transponders across different satellites is very challenging and difficult. This means that the Army is limited in capacity and latency, and lacks scalability. This can be a real problem when you consider the large data and file transfer requirements at the FOB.

mPOWER can deliver up to 1.25 GB of continuous bandwidth, which eliminates the limitations facing GEO because of its fixed transponder sizes. With mPOWER, the user can scale their capacity from 1 Mb to 100 Mb to 1000 Mb at the drop of a hat. And that capacity is delivered at incredibly high power. That has traditionally been a problem for GEO satellites, since your ground terminals need more power to communicate with the satellite – requiring larger, higher-powered antennas and terminals. This enables O3b mPOWER users to utilize small form factor terminals and still receive high throughputs and capacity.

The O3b mPOWER constellation will have more than 50,000 beams—5,000 per satellite—at its disposal. Those beams are incredibly high powered and can be pointed to any asset that the Army needs. This will enable us to provide the amount of capacity needed – with very low latency – to a small form factor terminal practically anywhere on Earth. That is game-changing.

GSR: When it comes to military communications, mission assurance is always a hot topic. What mission assurance and security benefits does mPOWER deliver?

SATCOM Expert: mPOWER’s security and mission assurance comes from the size and power of its beams, as well as its flexibility. mPOWER’s beams can be easily steered and repositioned in real-time from Earth. This same flexibility also allows the beams – and the traffic they carry – to be made almost imperceptible to the adversary.

“…O3b mPOWER…allows military customers to dictate where they want their network topology and how they want it to look. And that can be changed on demand.” – SATCOM Thought Leader

Flexibility really is the key here. mPOWER gives users control of the satellites – to a certain degree. Military users can steer the beams to the geographical areas in which they’re operating. They can steer them away from sources of interference or jamming. mPOWER also allows users to operate their own private network topology.

That’s something revolutionary and unique to O3b mPOWER – it allows military customers to dictate where they want their network topology and how they want it to look. And that can be changed on demand. This gives them even more autonomy – the ability to shape and steer their network and communications infrastructure. This enables the military to deceive adversaries using spoofing capabilities.

Finally, the satellites move. Being at MEO, there is a change over every 26 minutes as one satellite passes out of range a new one enters. That means that every 26 minutes, military users are on another satellite. This makes it incredibly difficult for adversaries to track satellites down, jam them, or otherwise cause problems.

Ultimately, mPOWER gives the government customer the autonomy, security, and the control of a satellite constellation that they’ve never had before from a commercial partner.

GSR: Let’s talk about the capacity of O3b mPOWER. What kind of capacity is possible with this service? How does that compare to what is available now?

SATCOM Expert: What the government has now – in regard to gateway sizes – for their tactical or regional hub nodes are these pretty big satellite dishes. I think the smallest size of a dish for a tactical hub is 3.7 meters, and that goes all the way up to 7.2 meters at the regional hubs. And even with antennas and terminals of that size, the Army is still limited to throughputs in the 36 MHz-72 MHz range.

Their ability to scale from there is limited to their transponder number and size. If the Army only has one satellite with only one transponder on it servicing a region, they have no ability to scale. In that situation, to increase their capacity and throughputs, they would have to put another large ground terminal up and point it to another satellite. The end result is either limited capacity, or an infinite number of enormous satellite dishes pointing at different satellites.

With mPOWER, a 2.4 meter dish can easily do what a 4.8 meter dish does with a GEO satellite. The number and size of terminals can be cut in half because it’s scalable. This means that the Army doesn’t have to worry about running out of resources or capacity. If they need to scale from 0.5 Mb to 50 Mb to 100 Mb to 1000 Mb, mPOWER gives them that flexibility.

GSR: In addition to the innovating in space, SES is also innovating on earth – intruding the Adaptive Resource Control (ARC) advanced space network management system. Why should the Army care about ARC? What will it do for them?

SATCOM Expert: I spent 25 years operating the electromagnetic spectrum for the military and the special operations community. Without fail one of the first things that had to be done was to deconflict everything that connects to a satellite – including every individual satellite voice handset. Every transmitter and emitter had to be deconflicted manually. Every frequency that was being used inside of the satellite constellation had to be deconflicted.

“O3b mPOWER offers the ability to reuse spectrum, which increases the amount of different devices, vehicles and platforms that can connect to the satellite.” – SATCOM Thought Leader

And that was necessary for everything operating on a frequency in any domain. We had to ensure that an armored land vehicle, an aircraft flying overhead, and a ground station with comms-at-the-halt were all operating on different frequencies. We would work to ensure they were all on different frequencies, and then hope that we didn’t run out of frequencies before accomplishing the mission.

O3b mPOWER offers the ability to reuse spectrum, which increases the amount of different devices, vehicles and platforms that can connect to the satellite. Even better, the ARC system enables automated deconfliction, so that every satellite phone, manpack or small form factor terminal using mPOWER can be operating in the same space and same satellite as the aerial vehicle and the camp post. They can run underneath each other. And that is all done automatically by the ARC solution.

ARC is incredibly smart and intuitive. And it ultimately allows satellite resources to be maximized efficiently and effectively on a global scale.

GSR: mPOWER is not the first or only satellite service orbiting in MEO that offers low latency. How does O3b mPOWER compare to traditional O3b?

SATCOM Expert: The main and largest difference is the global capability. The merits of O3b classic have proven themselves for low latency, high-bandwidth solutions. But there are only 200 beams. And each one of those beams has a 450 mile radius. That makes O3b classic a finite solution with only so much capacity available to users.

A geographic combatant commander wants a solution that’s going to be available when and where they need it. They want a services that gives them a global end-to-end capability. And while O3b classic has been a game-changer in so many areas, mPOWER is exponentially improved in that area.

O3b mPOWER enables more scalability. It’s more flexible and portable. The service can be turned off in a region where it’s not needed, and then turned on somewhere else, as the mission requires. If the mission requires troops to have connectivity in Africa one day, and then Pakistan the next, the service can be turned off, moved, and turned back on in that new area of operations.

O3b mPOWER gives military users portability and scalability. And those are two big things that aren’t available with O3b classic today.

GSR: You’ve laid out multiple benefits of O3b mPOWER over traditional GEO satellite and even O3b classic. So, if you were a senior decision maker in the Army, right now, what would make you the most excited about mPOWER?

SATCOM Expert: What would be most exciting for me would be that – for the very first time, as a senior leader in the military – I would be able to fight with the gloves off and the limitations removed.

Right now, our military is fighting through and around established barriers to our success. mPOWER is allowing commanders to fight at the speed of war. It’s allowing them to command and control in the battle space, at the tactical edge, with all of the advanced technologies available to them, in real-time.

With O3b mPOWER, they can scale, add, decrease, and increase the satellite services at their disposal. They’re no longer limited to the confines of a GEO satellite solution. With mPOWER, they can push huge amounts of traffic to anywhere in the world.

For additional information about how HTS satellites at MEO can reduce latency and enable next-generation technologies on the battlefield, click HERE to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper, “High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications.”

The post Fighting with the gloves off – what mPOWER means to the Army appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The defense and military publications are filled with stories of high-tech, innovative new pilot programs and R&D projects designed to make the warfighter more capable, and more likely to return home to their families. This includes introducing unmanned vehicles to domains other than the air – including unmanned naval vessels and unmanned land vehicles. This also includes the emergence of wearables – such as goggles and other devices – that can deliver augmented reality (AR) programs, communications, and situational awareness to warfighters in theater.

While wildly different, what all of these new weapons systems and platforms have in common is the need for connectivity at the tactical edge. Autonomous vehicles would be effectively useless if they couldn’t be remotely piloted, and if the ISR data they generate couldn’t be reviewed and analyzed in real-time. AR and situational awareness solutions would be more hindrance than a help if they were lagging or delivering old data because their connections offered too little bandwidth with too much latency.

In the fall of this year, SES will be launching a next-generation HTS solution into Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) that promises to meet and exceed the connectivity requirements of these new warfighting technologies. The new solution is called O3b mPOWER, and it’s expected to deliver fiber-like connectivity to practically any location on Earth where the Army may need to operate.

To learn more about this new satellite service and what it means for Army comms on the move requirements, we sat down with a SATCOM Expert at SES Space and Defense. During our discussion, we talked about the connectivity requirements of the Army of tomorrow, how O3b mPOWER can meet them, and why latency is such a problem for next-generation Army technologies.

Here is the first part of our conversation:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): We continue to hear about exciting new technologies making their way to the warfighter – even including new goggles or glasses with AR capabilities. What will new technologies like these – and advanced heads-up displays in ground vehicles – do to the Army’s network requirements for deployed warfighters? What other new technologies and solutions are increasing Army network requirements?

SATCOM Expert: The only way that solutions like AR capabilities and goggles that display real-time ISR data and situational intelligence information can be made available to the warfighter is to effectively extend military cloud and compute resources to the tactical edge. And the connection to those cloud resources needs to have low latency so as to display relevant information in real-time.

The standard geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites that the military uses today cannot support the requirements of these new technologies – include the real-time transmission and display of data.

When you’re using goggles or glasses with AR capability, or heads-up displays in your ground vehicles, [data transfer] has to happen in real-time if it’s going to be useful and relevant to the mission. There can’t be buffering – like when watching Netflix at home – and the buffer is going to handle the delays. You’re actually participating in real-time, and that buffering would effectively defeat the purpose of the technology.

“Commanders are commanding their units in real-time. They have to make decisions in real-time. They can’t wait two seconds. And they can’t make those decisions based on data that doesn’t reflect the real-time reality that their warfighters are facing. This is why latency is so harmful.” – SATCOM Expert

Today’s advanced HTS spacecraft at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and the new satellite constellations comprised of these spacecraft, allow the latency to be reduced to the point where you can actually operate or extend edge computing to the very tactical edge without buffering.

GSR: What would the experience be like for a warfighter trying to use these technologies with a connection with high latency? Why wouldn’t it work?

SATCOM Expert: Think about gamers playing a video game. They would not be successful in the game if they were having to wait on the buffering. They would disappear in one place and show up in another place. What they see on the screen would have happened in the past – not the distant past, but still the past.

Commanders are commanding their units in real-time. They have to make decisions in real-time. They can’t wait two seconds. And they can’t make those decisions based on data that doesn’t reflect the real-time reality that their warfighters are facing. This is why latency is so harmful. This is why it’s so limiting when it comes to using these new technologies in the field.

“A soldier can’t drive a vehicle while looking at a headset with AR that is delayed. What is displayed in the headset will not be synchronized with the environment around the soldier…You can’t bring these technologies into the battlefield environment without having a low latency round trip to make it real-time.” – SATCOM Expert

If you ask military satellite users today if their communications experience over a GEO satellite connection is good, nine out of ten would tell you they need more bandwidth. But bandwidth is usually not the problem. It’s the latency. It makes them feel like they have a slow connection that doesn’t meet their needs or requirements.

And here’s the real problem with latency – there’s really only one solution. You will never be able to make a GEO satellite operate with the lower latency of a MEO satellite. You can’t trick it. The latency is a result of that satellite’s distance from the Earth, and there is no way around that. The data is going to take a certain amount of time to make a round trip to and from that satellite. That distance is just physically further – nearly twice the distance – for GEO satellites, which means you’ll have twice the latency and have to use buffering. You won’t need those things with MEO.

GSR: What impact does latency have specifically for solutions like AR and cloud technologies? Can anything be done to make GEO acceptable for these use cases?

SATCOM Expert: Latency causes the need to bring in buffering and compression techniques. Those are required over GEO satellites just to have the illusion of real-time command and control. We have done everything technologically possible over GEO – everything that you can do to compress data and e minimize the effects of latency – but you cannot extend cloud and edge computing into a tactical ecosystem in real-time over a GEO satellite.

And that is particularly a problem with AR. A soldier can’t drive a vehicle while looking at a headset with AR that is delayed. What is displayed in the headset will not be synchronized with the environment around the soldier and the vehicle that they’re piloting. The Army can’t bring these technologies into the battlefield environment without having a low latency round trip to make it real-time.

“A soldier on the ground has real-time data about the location on which they’re standing. mPOWER can enable them to push that data – in real-time – back into the cloud for it to be processed and analyzed.” – SATCOM Expert

This is where MEO really shines. Satellites in MEO reduce the latency from 250 MS round trip to 120 MS round trip. That allows for real-time audio and video communications, as well as data transfer.

That reduction in latency is what is enabling the military to push cloud solutions to the very tactical edge.

GSR: Why is real-time communication and information sharing important for the warfighter of tomorrow? What scenarios and situations exist in which increased situational awareness and intelligence could be useful for deployed warfighters in theater?

SATCOM Expert: Any time when senior decision-makers and commanders need to make a decision, there will be a need for real-time information sharing and communications.

For example, think about a situation where warfighters need to call in air support or an airstrike. The command-and-control layer is not co-located with the unmanned aerial asset. They’re not in the Forward Operating Base (FOB). They’re not with the soldier on the ground.

This physical separation creates a delay in decision making which can affect the targeting of that aerial asset and impact its success. If commanders can target those airstrikes or aerial assets with real-time data – and communicate with all parties involved in real-time – it is a game-changer.

“Today’s advanced HTS spacecraft at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and the new satellite constellations comprised of these spacecraft, allow the latency to be reduced to the point where you can actually operate or extend edge computing to the very tactical edge without buffering.” – SATCOM Expert

Another example would involve the aggregation and analysis of intelligence and data. A soldier on the ground has real-time data about the location on which they’re standing. mPOWER can enable them to push that data – in real-time – back into the cloud for it to be processed and analyzed. This can enable better, more informed decision-making based on much more relevant and timely information.

Now, imagine that soldier finds a hard drive on a target and wants to upload that hard drive full of information back to senior military leaders and decision-makers. In the past, the fastest way to transfer that data would have been physically carrying the hard drive to those that needed it. But, with mPOWER, that soldier has the bandwidth and low latency necessary to upload that data in real-time.

For additional information about how HTS satellites at MEO can reduce latency and enable next-generation technologies on the battlefield, click HERE to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper, “High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications.”

Featured image by Air Force Airman 1 st Class Tiffany Price. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

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While mPOWER’s ability to offer scalable, flexible connectivity would be beneficial across all domains, the air domain could particularly benefit from the advancements offered in this new service.  mPOWER offers all mobile platforms an unprecedented capability to transmit much more data, with just as high data rates as they can receive, offered at a very competitive cost to other lower speed traditional airborne connectivity solutions.

The amount of data delivered to – and generated from – today’s modern aircraft is immense. Pilots have new heads-up displays that offer augmented reality (AR) and insights into their missions and operations. And every plan has become laden with sensors that are constantly generating mission-critical data and insights. High bandwidth satellite connectivity is essential for powering these applications and providing the real-time transfer of critical data used to inform mission strategy and decision-making.

To get a better understanding of the impact that mPOWER could have on aerial missions for the U.S. military and its coalition partners, the Government Satellite Report recently sat down with Quincy “Q.” Dan, the Senior Director of Mobility and Integrated Development at SES Space and Defense. During our discussion, we explored what is new and different about the mPOWER satellite constellation, examined how mPOWER will be a COMSATCOM gamechanger for air domain connectivity, and got a status update on when mPOWER will be available to government users.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): We’ve heard that the next generation of fighters and bombers are basically sensors with wings. How does this proliferation of sensors impact the network and connectivity requirements of these aircraft in flight? How can mPOWER help with that?

Q. Dan: Airborne operations will require the capability to offload the data from multiple sensors and cameras, as well as systems’ data and other information. This will require much larger pipes from beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) communications systems.

mPOWER provides the ability to move all this data at once with added resiliency and higher availability rates based on the use of multiple satellites.

mPOWER will support return links ranging from 5Mbps on small form factor airborne terminals, and up to 100Mbps on larger airborne terminals. This is a game-changing capability to support live HD video simultaneously with multi-sensor data, and voice, while distributing that data directly to multiple end-points with mPOWER’s multi-cast features.

GSR: What about UAVs and transport aircraft? Are they also requiring increased connectivity and more network capacity/bandwidth? What trends are driving this?

Q. Dan: This depends on the purpose of the platform. But yes, we see a much higher demand to move data from unmanned platforms of all sizes.

Unmanned systems are usually used to gather intelligence and surveillance, whether that is a civil application like environmental monitoring, or highway monitoring or a military application. Operators often want to move that data or HD video in real-time. That requires sophisticated systems and networks to upload and distribute that data.

mPOWER provides the ability to upload data from multiple sensors and cameras simultaneously over a single data link. Complimented by our multi-cast capability which will deliver that content over the satellite network to multiple endpoints. This is a true differentiator for any unmanned platform.

GSR: Is delivering satellite connectivity to aircraft difficult, in particular? Does their speed create issues staying within beams? Does their smaller footprint create limitations on antenna and terminals?

Q. Dan: Airborne SATCOM terminals need to track quickly, especially with maneuvering aircraft. This requires quite a bit of intelligence in the terminal and use of slip rings, advanced stabilization, and tracking mechanics, as well as software. This becomes more difficult when tracking Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or MEO satellites, and even more difficult when tracking multiple orbits and networks.

Parabolic, mechanically steered antennas are severely challenged today just tracking GEO satellites and may have intermittent signal loss when maneuvering or switching bands or beams. The industry is quickly developing Electronically Steerable Array (ESA) terminals which will one day be able to track multiple satellites at multiple orbits, simultaneously transmitting and receiving between them for clean make-before-break handoffs, while traveling at high speeds.

SES Space and Defense is working with many of the industry-leading, best-of-breed airborne antenna manufacturers to integrate the new ESA antennas with our MEO/GEO services to provide true multi-orbit resiliency to aircraft with increased availability and reliability to ensure crew, passengers, and systems stay connected every step of the way.

GSR: What is connectivity like for aircraft today? How does this limited bandwidth impact operations and what’s possible in the air?

Q. Dan: There are lots of options for providing inflight connectivity today ranging from commercial passenger applications to military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) applications. Military ISR applications have largely relied upon legacy Ku-band terminals and services to deliver the largest return links possible with data rates ranging from 1-20Mbps typically.

mPOWER will greatly enhance the return link capability with smaller form factor (SFF) terminals that deliver return link data rates up to 100Mbps. We have recent test results with small MEO terminals delivering data rates up to 50Mbps on the O3b classic service.

GSR: SES will be launching the first satellites in their mPOWER constellation in a matter of months. Why is mPOWER an exciting solution for the Air Force and other military organizations that fly aircraft?

Q. Dan: mPOWER and MEO are a huge part of the SpaceCom/CSCO strategy for resilient, assured communications. MEO is at the heart of every PACE plan and assured connectivity strategy to support the most critical applications.

mPOWER offers enhanced LPI/LPD and anti-jam capabilities, enormous data rates in both directions, the ability for the government to control and steer beams, and low-latency with the features to distribute data across the satellite network or at the edge with integrated cloud services.

GSR: What particular traits or features of mPOWER make it especially beneficial for use in the air domain?

Q. Dan: mPOWER is particularly well suited to provide resilient communications in contested environments with the ability to support multiple waveforms and modems. MEO ground stations can be located anywhere, such as military installations, forward operating bases (FOBs), or even on ships-at-sea deployed worldwide. Other closed infrastructure satellite networks require the use of their commercial gateways creating potential vulnerabilities.

mPOWER provides steerable spot beams which can follow the mission or aircraft while providing a discreet operational capability. mPOWER can provide dynamic surge capacity instantaneously without the need to go through complicated provisioning and ordering process. mPOWER also has very low latency compared to GEO satellites. mPOWER is based upon proven fielded technology which has been evolving for several years with O3b classic and already has a robust ground communications network.

Summed up, these capabilities provide better situational awareness and enable faster decision-making with enhanced mobility and quick response capability (QRC). mPOWER gives our forces a combat advantage and helps to ensure mission success.

For additional information on mPOWER, click HERE to download, “O3b mPOWER for U.S. Government Missions.”

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And while this has been hard on everyone, technology has been there to help somewhat soften the blow.

Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, and every other online video streaming service – with the exception of maybe Quibi – have helped keep people entertained. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other online collaboration and video conferencing solutions have helped us see our distant loved-ones face-to-face. They’ve also kept us connected and collaborating with our coworkers. Cloud-based applications and virtual desktops have made remote work both possible and effective. And a combination of delivery services and dedicated essential workers have kept us fed and supplied.

But what would happen if we didn’t have access to these services, tools, and capabilities? It’s an almost unfathomable scenario to consider for many of us that simply take these things – smart devices, online services, and the prevalent bandwidth that enables them – for granted in our everyday lives.

But there is a large population of our fellow Americans that don’t have access to the modern conveniences and capabilities that ubiquitous broadband connectivity and highspeed terrestrial cellular networks have delivered to much of our country. That group includes deployed soldiers – many of which are stationed in places where terrestrial networks are either untrusted or denied. Or, in some extreme cases – such as with Navy personnel stationed on ships-at-sea – those terrestrial networks are simply unavailable.

As Nicole Robinson, the SVP of Global Government at SES, recently explained during a webinar for press and satellite industry experts entitled, “The Government Network Architecture of the Future,” this is creating a serious personnel problem for today’s military.

“New generations of warfighters are growing up with [smart devices]. They have access to social media tools and different ways to connect with friends and loved ones,” She explained. “When they forward deploy, they’re expecting access to those devices and services, but that’s not currently the case.”

And this problem has only gotten worse during the global COVID-19 pandemic since it’s keeping soldiers and sailors deployed and quarantined from their loved ones. As the USO recently explained on their Website:

…because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Navy ships have been ordered not to come into port, meaning that service members currently aboard these ships have been stuck at sea for months. Some have been at sea for nearly half a year. Of the Navy ships that do come into port, their visit is far from normal. Service members must stay quarantined, away from contact with others, to ensure no exposure and spread of COVID-19 on the ship…”

How can we keep deployed or geographically-isolated soldiers and sailors connected to their loved ones? How can we keep them engaged and entertained at a time when a global pandemic has extended deployments and demanded quarantining? And how can we keep the morale of our warfighters high before it starts to impact retention and future recruitment?

The utilization of satellite solutions for morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) could provide the answer.

Satellite as a MWR solution
The military has long relied on satellite communications in places where terrestrial networks are unavailable, untrusted, or otherwise denied. The same commercial satellite connectivity that has been relied on for communications in theater can be used for military MWR initiatives to deliver connectivity to soldiers and sailors stuck at-see and overseas.

In fact, with today’s advanced commercial satellite solutions – including high-throughput satellites (HTS) in orbits closer to Earth than Geostationary Orbit (GEO) – such as Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) – they could deliver even more.

The low-latency, high-throughput capability of HTS satellites in LEO and MEO orbits – including the SES O3b MEO satellite constellation – is capable of delivering fiber-like connectivity to practically anywhere on the planet. That means that the same highspeed, high-bandwidth connection that today’s next generation of warfighters have been raised with and rely on can be delivered to them regardless of where they are on Earth.

This isn’t a revolutionary idea. It’s something that is widely used in private industry. This was well illustrated by Brad Grady, a Principal Analyst at space and satellite industry analyst firm, Northern Sky Research, when he asked, “Why can my family go on a cruise ship and get [an] incredible connection, and then I can go on an [aircraft] carrier and the connection is terrible?”

As the next generation of warfighter enters the military – one that was raised with mobile devices in their pockets and that considers connectivity more than just a convenience – this disparity is quickly becoming a problem. And it’s a problem that is being exacerbated by the global pandemic that has quite literally left American warfighters stranded overseas and at-sea. And it couldn’t be happening at a worse time, when the U.S. military is actively looking to recruit and retain troops as part of larger efforts to increase military readiness.

“A small number of Americans serve in our armed forces and they have growing expectations,” explained Rep. Jackie Speier at a recent House Armed Services Committee subpanel examining military recruitment and retention, “The competition for the limited talent is fierce.”

According to Nicole Robinson, part of the solution could involve putting a piece of home in the pockets of servicemen and women. “The military needs to improve retention for soldiers, sailors, and airmen,” she explained. “Part of that is having access to data – having access to creature comforts when they’re deployed.”

COMSATCOM solutions – especially HTS constellations at LEO and MEO – could make that a reality for the military, both during the ongoing pandemic and well into the future.

Featured image courtesy of Max Lonzanida and the U.S. Navy.

The post Could MWR via satellite help solve military recruitment and retention challenges? appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

But what isn’t as simple is embracing new, disruptive technologies that require a massive change to the organization, its culture, or its way of thinking. The adoption of these technologies and the organizational changes that enable it takes time. It requires buy-in from the highest levels. And it often requires an organization to take risks and doing things that may be uncomfortable.

Cloud adoption was like that – especially within the government and military.

To embrace the cloud, government and military organizations had to answer a difficult question, “Does control only come from ownership?” They had to shake decades of thinking and a deep cultural belief that to truly control and secure something, they needed to own every part of it outright.

For the agencies and organizations that were able to overcome those cultural objections and put aside their need to own everything, there were significant rewards.

The embrace of the cloud-enabled immense scalability, agility, and cost savings. It also opened the door to digital transformation and the advanced technologies that are revolutionizing government. But those benefits came at the cost of making difficult decisions and taking risks – doing things in a way that went against decades of doing business a certain way.

According to Brad Grady, a Principal Analyst at space and satellite industry analyst firm, Northern Sky Research, and the SVP of Global Government at SES, Nicole Robinson, the next logical step in how the government and military embrace satellite communications could require a similar change in culture, approach, and thinking. But – much like with the cloud – if the government and military are able to change “business as usual,” the benefits could be equally immense.

New solutions to meet massive bandwidth appetites
During a recent Webinar for press and industry experts entitled, “The Government Network Architecture of the Future,” Brad and Nicole laid out how the next generation of commercial satellites and satellite capabilities could usher in a new era in connectivity.

During their panel discussion, the two satellite experts explained how embracing commercial capabilities could be the best and most effective way to meet the government’s rapidly-increasing appetite for bandwidth at the edge. What is driving that appetite? According to Brad, it’s a combination of three converging trends – improvements in ISR, increasing communications requirements, and a fundamental change in operations:

“ISR demands are on the rise. There are more sensors on more platforms…within that, each sensor is getting higher and higher resolution. Operations are becoming more real-time, with government and military operators looking to bring collaboration tools and services to the edge. Deployments are also becoming more complex.”

To meet these requirements, government and military leaders need a low-latency, high-throughput satellite solution capable of delivering fiber-like connectivity to the edge – places where terrestrial networks are unavailable, denied, or untrusted.  And those low-latency and high throughput satellite capabilities are not currently available through the military’s own communications satellites.

“There is no broadband, non-GEO government system that is operating today,” Brad explained. “There is no multi-orbit government architecture that offers multi-gigabyte [connectivity] out there today.”

They are available through commercial providers, however.

“…instead of continuing to buy government-owned satellites…take a step back…Instead of spending Herculean amounts of taxpayer dollars to get yesterday’s SATCOM links, partner with satellite operators that are already ahead of the curve.” – Nicole Robinson

Over the past decade, the satellite industry has been investing heavily and innovating new capabilities and solutions. The result has been the evolution of high throughput satellites (HTS) that utilize multiple, more powerful spot beams to deliver higher throughputs and bandwidth. There has also been a proliferation of HTS in orbits closer to Earth than geostationary (GEO) orbit – enabling the delivery of high throughput connectivity with low latencies.

But to embrace and adopt these solutions would require a massive sea-change in how the government and military have traditionally acquired satellite solutions.

From purpose-built to combined military-commercial architecture
Historically, when the government and military wanted to acquire satellite capacity, they commissioned a company to build them a satellite to their specifications that they then launched into space and operated themselves. They controlled these satellites and knew they were secure because they owned and operated them.

Unfortunately, the existing wideband communications satellites that the military owns are not high throughput satellites and they’re all in the GEO orbit. To construct and launch their own HTS satellite at an orbit closer to Earth – Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) or Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) – would take years and be extremely expensive. Utilizing commercial capabilities gives the government and military access to these technologies and orbits immediately, and at a fraction of the price.

“…instead of continuing to buy government-owned satellites…take a step back,” Nicole suggested. “Instead of spending Herculean amounts of taxpayer dollars to get yesterday’s SATCOM links, partner with satellite operators that are already ahead of the curve.”

But that means forsaking old satellite acquisition models and partnering with industry to make COMSATCOM solutions an integrated part of a combined government and commercial satellite architecture.

“Maybe, instead of thinking about who owns it, think about having a combined architecture,” Nicole explained. “It’s time to debunk the myth of what commercial and military satellite should and could do. Instead of having the ongoing ‘us vs them’ conversation, we need to have a ‘we’ view of the world.”

This concept of a combined, integrated satellite architecture is something that senior leadership within the military has claimed to embrace. In fact, the inaugural Chief of Space Operations at the United States Space Force, General John W. “Jay” Raymond, committed to, “…continue engaging commercial partners to evaluate opportunities that may complement or possibly replace portions of a traditional military SATCOM purpose-built system.”

But large changes in vision, culture, and approach are never simple, fast, or easy, and many within the military have concerns that giving up ownership of satellites will decrease security and control.

Much like with cloud adoption, if the government and military can put aside their belief that control can only come with ownership, there are considerable benefits they can realize from embracing commercial satellite. Many of those benefits are a result of satellite operators innovating over time to meet the requirements and solve the problems of their commercial customers.

“Industry has always been out front,” Brad said. “They’ve always been innovating because they have lots of commercial customers that are doing very innovative things and solving very complicated problems that look a lot like government problems.”

To bring these commercial benefits and innovations to the military, and to make this vision of a combined satellite architecture possible, there needs to be a change in how the military works with its commercial partners. This means giving industry a seat at the table, working with them to identify and shape requirements in advance of issuing task orders, and challenging them to innovate on not just technologies, but also on business models.

“The U.S. military is starting to acknowledge they need to do more than just solve the connection – issuing task orders and buying capacity,” Brad explained. “That’s an old paradigm that’s dead on arrival now.”

Cloud adoption was difficult and slow in the government. It took a fundamental change in how government-operated and a movement away from the culture and belief of having to own everything to ensure control and security. However, those tough changes ushered in a wave of new innovation that is revolutionizing government. The same lessons learned from cloud adoption can be applied to commercial satellite. The organizational and cultural changes will be significant, but the access to connectivity and capability that COMSATCOM will deliver could be just as revolutionary for our government.

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