When these new technologies are released and begin to gain mainstream adoption, the military begins to analyze and test them to see if there are potential use cases for them in combat. Can they make our soldiers better informed or more connected? Could it improve our soldiers’ survivability or increase lethality?

In many cases, the answer to those questions are, “yes,” and then the hard work begins. The military needs to figure out how they want to bring these new technologies to bear and enable fiber-like communications and how they want to harden those technologies for harsh battlefield environments. Finally, they will also need to understand how they can use the same equipment and technologies where the conditions are not as austere and leverage the same infrastructure they use at home or work.

For the military to deliver many of these new tools and capabilities into the fight, a high bandwidth, low latency network connection is a prerequisite for operational sufficiency. Today’s network-centric military operators demand high bandwidth connectivity to deliver the new tools, applications and capabilities they need to fight.

Historically, high bandwidth and low latency has unfortunately been the eternal stumbling block in the domain of land-based combat operations.

The dream of comms on the move

Today’s soldiers first encounter combat operations in barren, austere environments where the infrastructure we are accustomed to back home does not exist or is otherwise inaccessible or unreliable.

This creates a problem for the military. How can those network-enabled tools and capabilities be sent to military personnel at the tip of the spear if they can’t connect? The answer has traditionally been through satellite. However, satellite has always come with its own challenges for the military.

Traditional military satellite (MILSAT) services were delivered via satellites at the geostationary orbit (GEO); examples of this include narrowband communications provided by UHF Tactical satellites or other 56 Kbps satellite data networks. These systems were and still are in high demand. They are only capable of delivering so much capacity and bandwidth because of the distant orbit location. Moreover, there is then the challenge of providing the correct ground infrastructure – the terminals and antennas necessary to utilize military and commercial satellite networks are often bulky and not exactly what anyone would consider, “mobile.”

While deployed soldiers were in camp or on base, there wasn’t a problem. There was the time and space to establish ground infrastructure and deliver communications to the soldiers while they were there. They were able to have comms at pause, but they couldn’t take that connectivity with them, and that’s what the military has been looking for – comms on the move.

Comms on the move at sea and in the air

Luckily, there have been major advancements in the satellite and ground infrastructure industries that could start to make this dream a reality.

Newer satellites, like those closer to the Earth in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), have been flying since 2014. These satellites have high-throughput and low latency, the two key features enabling warfighters to do the most demanding tasks via network-enabled services, tools and interactive applications – from high definition ISR video to the highly detailed collaboration on GEOINT necessary for making informed troop movement decisions.

New antenna and terminal technologies have also been introduced that can enable access to this new generation of satellites and deliver comms on the move. Unfortunately, they still are not small and mobile enough to be carried by soldiers on foot but they are perfectly fine for trucks, ships and large transport airplanes.

Are Comms on the Move coming for the dismounted warfighter?

Yes. Unequivocally, yes.

The first computers took up the better part of an entire room. Today, that same computing power is dwarfed by something that fits in our pockets. In fact, there is more computing power in a Fitbit than that used to land a man on the moon. New technologies come out all the time, and they’re constantly getting better and smaller. Terminal and antenna technologies are not an exception.

Newer, commercially viable electronically steered, phased-array antennas are smaller and more capable of handling the technical requirements of MEO satellite constellations. These antennas and supporting electronics are in development and testing right now, and should be available in just two or three years.

When these new antenna and terminal technologies enter the marketplace, they’re going to open the door for the military to embrace MEO satellite constellations – and the high throughput, low latency connectivity that they enable – for comms on the move across all requisite domains: air, sea and land.

That’s when the dream becomes reality – when soldiers will get communications at low latency and high throughput. These critical qualities enable warfighters to enjoy the same fiber-like response times they enjoy at home, and use the same mission critical interactive applications as they do at home. This will revolutionize warfare. SES Space and Defense currently offers a MEO satellite constellation called O3b that can deliver the bandwidth that’s necessary for comms on the move. Moreover, we have funded – and will deliver by 2022 – its follow-on capability called O3b mPOWER, which will deliver up to 35,000 beams globally below 50 degrees latitude. That is an impressive 100 Gbps per spacecraft of capability into the tactical edge, adding an incredible solution to the military’s tools base.

For additional information about O3b mPOWER and its potential use cases for the military, click HERE.

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The use of these UAS and RPA vehicles is one of the reasons why commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM) is so essential in the military today. Unfortunately, the COMSATCOM services needed to operate these remote vehicles can get expensive – especially considering the way the military currently acquires COMSATCOM services.

With an eye towards cost savings, the federal government and America’s military have taken steps to dial back spending. Travel restrictions, hiring freezes and other initiatives have been put in place.

But what if there was another way to cut costs that really had very little to no impact on accomplishing the government’s mission? The COMSATCOM being purchased to operate vehicles such as UAS and RPA could be one of the things that the military easily saves money on. Here’s how…

The government traditionally purchases geostationary (GEO) satellite capacity from COMSATCOM providers to enable operations with UAS and RPA vehicles, as well as to provide connectivity to ships at sea and other mobile operations. When communications are needed on the move, GEO satellites are providing them. However, simply switching from GEO satellites to inclined satellites could save the military 30-50 percent on the cost of these COMSATCOM services.

What’s the difference between GEO and inclined satellite orbit? Very little, to be honest.

Inclined satellites are GEO satellites that are approaching the later stages of their lives. GEO satellites sit above the Equator at all times. When these satellites get older – to save their limited fuel – operators reduce station-keeping adjustments and extend the life by allowing the spacecraft to drift in the north/south direction. The square box that GEO satellites usually sit in becomes a rectangle, and the satellite drifts in an elongated figure eight pattern within it.

To connect to inclined satellites, a tracking antenna is necessary that can move and follow the satellite along its figure eight flight pattern. Luckily for the military, most UAS and RPA vehicles already have these types of antennas since they’re needed to stay connected to GEO satellites while they’re moving. The same can be said for ships at sea and any other “comms on the move” device. This means that there is no cost and effort needed to move from GEO satellites to inclined satellites – the equipment is the same.

However, there is one area where some minor investment will be needed – training.

Military personnel are going to need some new skills, and will have to do some more work when communicating with inclined satellites in contract to GEO satellites. Since GEO satellites don’t move, they stay in the same location above the Equator, satellite operators don’t need to frequently update ephemeris data. Since inclined satellites do move in a figure eight pattern, the personnel at the ground station will have to frequently update the ephemeris data as the position of the satellite changes.

The sheer savings that inclined satellites can deliver clearly outweigh the inconvenience of retraining satellite personnel. Since these inclined satellites require tracking antennas, there are only so many different applications they can be used for. This means that they often have a significant amount of capacity available. With capacity readily available aboard these satellites, the military not only gets low pricing, they also don’t have to compete for bandwidth.

At a time when the military and the federal government are looking for any way possible to trim costs and save money, continuing the use of GEO satellites for comms on the move, remote vehicles and ships at sea when cheaper, inclined satellites are available is hard to justify. With some additional training and just a little more work, the military personnel that operate satellites can get up to speed, and the hardware necessary to use these satellites is already in hand.

For more information about inclined satellites and what they can do for the military, click on the links below:

Pentagon plans to boost drone flights by 50 percent

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Flies First Long Duration Test Using Repurposed Satellite

I.O. Satellites for UAVs? USAF Reaping Savings

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