During a recent panel discussion at the 2025 Defense in Space Conference, experts from GovSat, ST Engineering iDirect, and Kratos discussed the threats interference poses to military operations and how satellite operators are working with global militaries to address them.

Shahida Barick, moderator of the DiSC panel, opened the discussion by asking the panelists how industry can help governments and militaries mitigate interference. Josef Nemec, Technology Director at GovSat, noted that interference mitigation involves detection, monitoring, and the proactive hardening of spacecraft against intentional or unintentional interference.

“What we do is detect, monitor, geolocate, analyze, characterize, and report almost every interference event in all frequency bands that we have on our spacecraft,” said Nemec. “This provides not only situational awareness to our customers, but we can provide initial actionable intelligence that helps our customers develop countermeasures and a deterrence posture towards such events. We also go the extra mile to deliver a system that is resistant and resilient towards interference in itself. We have anti-jamming, adaptive beam forming, and geolocation features that we can use.”

According to Nemec, the volume of satellite interference events has been increasing at an alarming rate, from both accidental and adversarial sources. This spike in satellite interference is forcing satellite operators and global militaries to rethink how they collaborate on interference mitigation.

“In earlier years, interference was relatively easy to mitigate, and it was occurring at a relatively low pace,” Nemec said. “But [the pace] has changed. We do not have the time to manually investigate every event. We need to automate [interference mitigation]. In an accidental interference scenario, there usually is a point of contact on the other side that you could go to and resolve the matter . But since [the start of the Ukraine war in] February 2022, this has changed.”

Dave Davis, Senior Technical Director at ST Engineering iDirect, agreed with Nemec that the volume of interference has grown tremendously since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.

“What we’ve been seeing in the last three to four years has been an increase in interference from many sources,” explained Davis. “Some include adversaries deliberately trying to take down systems and cause interference. But we’ve also seen a massive increase in interference from unintentional sources, like LEOs interfering with GEO technology, or radar interference, or interference from 5G technologies.”

Nemec added that the volume of interference present in today’s warfighting environments requires new approaches from satellite operators to strengthen the resilience and transmission security (transec) of a military satellite’s transmissions. This approach includes satellite operators working in tandem with military customers.

“Let’s try to imagine [an approach where] customers delegate their mission planning and comms processes to a trusted operator that will become a copilot during their ISR mission,” Nemec explained. “The copilot would ensure that the customer stays connected, switching from satellite to satellite, capacity to capacity, etc., at all times. The question is no longer if we will face interference during a mission but when and what to do about it. Customers will face interference for sure.

For Mark Lambert, President of Kratos Communications, his company is one of those copilots working alongside global militaries to analyze the type of interference occurring and geolocate its sources. “We’re in the RF domain, looking at the transmissions that are both being received and transmitted by satellites,” said Lambert. “We use that to understand what’s happening in the spectrum, if there is somebody transmitting from the ground, and geolocate where on the ground they are, as well as understand the type of interference that is happening.”

In a follow-up question from an audience member, Lambert was asked what the response is after a source of interference is identified.

“We have the technology to geolocate and understand where interference is coming from, whether deliberate or accidental,” Lambert answered. “Once you’ve identified the source and the ownership of that transmitter, there’s a choice as to what you do about it. If you think it’s just a commercial VSAT terminal that’s mispointed, then potentially you can ring up the network operator to send an engineer to fix it before the interference really begins to have a dramatic effect on your systems. If it’s a more malicious actor, then I guess we need to get our friends on the ground involved to take some more serious action.”

One theme that popped up throughout the panel discussion was the role of automation in interference mitigation. Barick asked Davis whether interference mitigation should be fully automated or require a human-in-the-loop. “I think automation is important,” replied Davis. “You want to make it as easy as possible for the end users. The more automated it is, the better it’s going to be, and the quicker it’s going to react. But you absolutely need to have the human in the loop there as well.”

Davis explained that there may be instances where military customers want to be seen and affected by interference to gather information about an adversary. In those cases, a human would be needed in the loop. Echoing Davis, when asked what the future of interference mitigation looks like, Nemec replied with three words, “Automation, automation, automation.”

Click the articles below to read more news from DiSC:

How Geopolitics is Reshaping the Space Domain

Optical Ground Terminals for the Military: The Benefits and Barriers

David Broadbent Lays Out a New Era of Public Private Partnership in Space at 2025 Defense in Space Conference

The post Satellite Interference: How Industry and Global Militaries Are Approaching Mitigation appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

This Summer, SES and the Luxembourg Government announced that they would be commissioning the design and development of GovSat-2, the second military communications satellite under their GovSat joint-venture.

So why are SES and the Government of Luxembourg launching such second satellite for GovSat? To understand that, we have to first look at what differentiates GovSat’s capabilities from traditional commercial geosynchronous (GEO) service offerings.

Purpose-built for government missions
The GovSat-1 GEO satellite leverages military payloads capable of delivering sensitive communications via dedicated military frequency bands. While government users often leverage traditional satellite services in commercial frequency bands for certain applications, GovSat-1 offers secure connectivity for more sensitive missions thanks to its Mil Ka- and X-band frequencies, as well as its reinforced security.

In addition, the company operates from a fully dedicated Secure Missions Operations Center, using hardened ground segment that ensures end-to-end security. This allows GovSat-1 to deliver a higher level of service assurance when and where defense users need, such as within Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Such military-grade communications have the benefit of also being more jam-resistant than usual GEO satellites. This is important, as the past several years have seen governments facing new and fast-evolving threats, making the need for secure services one of the most significant drivers for the development of GovSat-2.

Resilient secure services for NATO allies
Today, GovSat is an in-demand asset for NATO allies for their sensitive military operations, and the need for it has never been higher.

Bearing witness to the ongoing geographical tensions around the world has made many NATO nations in Europe concerned about new aggressions from possible adversaries. This is forcing many of these nations to bolster their own defense and work to ensure they have access to advanced capabilities and systems needed for their own national and overall shared security.

Modern warfighting relies on connectivity and communications. The proliferation of connected sensors and network-enabled military systems makes communications an essential part of coordinated, data-driven, multi-domain operations. Satellite plays an essential role in modern military networks – delivering secure communications and signals to locations where terrestrial networks are either unavailable, untrusted, or denied.

With GovSat-1 being the only commercially-operated satellite that uses military frequencies and that can securely deliver classified information and communications, there has been tremendous demand from across the NATO nations for the satellite’s capacity.

While NATO nations are clamoring for more GovSat capacity to scale, they’re also looking for more enhanced and sophisticated security features, as the threat environment is constantly evolving and adversaries are becoming increasingly capable. Furthermore, they are also looking for capacity in complementary frequency bands such as UHF (Ultra High Frequency).

The combination of these considerations and requirements led GovSat to commission the development of GovSat-2.

A new, even more capable GovSat satellite
Buit by Thales Alenia Space, GovSat-2 will encompass the most recent advancements in satellite and military technology, addressing the strongest requirements in terms of Service Assurance and Security.

GovSat-2 is also being developed with the latest digital processing capabilities on board – to help increase resilience against adversarial jamming, spoofing, and other electronic warfare capabilities. The same technology will also deliver enhanced flexibility, giving the satellite certain beam steering capabilities necessary to address specific jamming scenarios.

Finally, GovSat-2 will be built with the specific current needs of NATO allies in mind. This includes the addition of UHF for tactical communications for allied militaries.

As modern warfare becomes increasingly reliant on networks and communications, the need for a commercial satellite that is capable of securely and assuredly delivering military data increases exponentially. The commissioning of GovSat-2 will help meet this requirement for NATO nations while also enabling increased collaboration and mission coordination across countries – providing the network backbone needed for advanced missions and improving collective deterrence and defense around the globe.

To learn more about GovSat, click HERE.

The post GovSat-2: Enabling Defense, Security and Collective Deterrence with Advanced Secure SATCOM appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The partners will leverage Network Innovations’ long history of providing global managed satellite services to introduce this new solution which will make commercially-provided X-band and military Ka-band capacity available to the military on-demand – when and where it’s needed within the reach of GovSat-1.

In advance of the official launch of tactiXs, we sat down with Patti Aston, a Senior Director at SES Space and Defense, to talk about the new service and why it’s an important new tool for the military. Here is what she told us:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): How is military X-band different from commercial Ka and Ku band? Are there benefits to X-band for military satellite communications?

Patti Aston: X-band frequencies are more robust than Ka and Ku-band frequencies – which are what most commercial operators provide. The major benefit of X-band is its resistance to interference. The satellites are set further apart, so the adjacent satellite interference is mitigated.

Also, the frequency band is better for mitigating rain fade. Ka and Ku are not as resistant to rain fade, which can create mission assurance concerns for the military. Rain fade is caused when the terminal on the ground can’t “see” the satellite on orbit because of clouds, rain, snow, sleet, or other environmental factors. This creates a situation where the signal fades and the terminal can’t transmit to the satellite.  Consumers of satellite television are probably very familiar with this – as they’ve most likely lost service or experienced pixilation in bad storms.

Finally, X-band users are typically more highly trained and less likely to accidentally create interference. With X-band available to only government and military users, terminal operators know how to access that capacity responsibly. That can’t always be said about other satellite frequencies.

These things all contribute to X-band being considered more reliable – or more mission-assured for critical operations. And when the lives of tactical operators and warfighters are on the line, the military doesn’t want to take the chance that there could be interference or signal loss.

GSR: If X-band is considered more reliable for military use, why aren’t all military communications sent over the X-band WGS satellite constellation? What limitations exist within the WGS constellation?

Patti Aston: There are a couple of reasons why the military may look outside the X- WGS constellation for satellite communications and connectivity. But the biggest reason is available non-preemptible capacity.

It can be difficult for a mission to get X-band capacity on the WGS constellation because of the demand. There is also a hierarchy within the military that is often reflected in which mission gets access to WGS capacity. Some missions have priority. For example, enabling communications for a special forces’ operation would take priority and capacity away from a testing or training mission.

“Any time assured communications are essential and mission-critical for the warfighter, tactiXs is a valuable resource.” – Patti Aston

Another factor is the time required to obtain access to the WGS satellites.  From request to access can take weeks or even months.  Often missions need immediate access to capacity and will turn to commercial operators for that access.

For mission-critical communication, WGS is terrific – but only if the warfighter and mission take priority and get access to it when they need it. Typically, if another, higher-priority, mission comes along, that warfighter or mission may get preempted and they won’t have connectivity at all.

GSR: SES and the Government of Luxembourg launched GovSat-1 to provide a commercial X-band alternative – effectively a commercial military satellite. Why is this needed? How can this help the military?

Patti Aston: By making a military band satellite available through a commercial operator, we can eliminate the potential of preemption. When a mission is contracted on a commercial satellite, that mission will always have the connectivity and capacity it needs, no matter what else is happening.

This is especially important if that satellite offers coverage in a region with a large military presence or where there are multiple military operations or missions being conducted.

GovSat-1 covers Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). That region is particularly important to the U.S. Government and its Alliance partners. In the EMEA region, our Government – and other Allied governments, including NATO members –  need access to communications with the same amount of security and mission assurance as the WGS satellite constellation. But they also need that access to be reliable and not get preempted by other users or missions.

“For mission-critical communication, WGS is terrific – but only if the warfighter and mission take priority and get access to it when they need it. Typically, if another, higher-priority, mission comes along, that warfighter or mission may get preempted and they won’t have connectivity at all.” – Patti Aston

GovSat-1 ensures that secure, X-band satellite communications and capacity are there for them in one of the most active areas of operation on the planet.

GSR: Recently SES announced the launch of a new service called tactiXs. How is this service new and different from other commercial satellite managed services on the marketplace?

Patti Aston: tactiXs is the only commercial satellite managed service available to the military that offers X-band satellite capacity on an as-needed volume-based basis. Essentially, by making capacity on GovSat-1 available as a short-term managed service, tactiXs enables the military to access X-band capacity specifically tailored to the mission in which communications are needed.

GSR: How does tactiXs change the way the military can access the GovSat-1 satellite and benefit from its capabilities and capacity?

Patti Aston: With tactiXs, if a military contracting officer needs to deliver a specific amount of X-band connectivity and capacity to the EMEA region for a specific amount of time, they will be able to purchase and deliver just what is needed to the warfighter within hours.

This gives the military user tremendous flexibility and agility. They now have on-demand access of X-band capacity on an as-needed basis. And they don’t have to buy the capacity on a long-term basis. Since this is a managed service, they also don’t have to provide the ground infrastructure. The ground stations and teleports – everything necessary to enable access – is provided for them.

GSR: What military use cases can you anticipate for tactiXs? What kinds of missions could tactiXs help to support?

Patti Aston: Candidly, all of them. Special operations, covert missions, missions in which warfighters have to drop into an area discreetly and receive or send data securely. Any mission that requires military X-band capacity that won’t be preempted. Any mission that needs the security of X-band satellite communications from a trusted industry partner – and they need it right away. Any time assured communications are essential and mission-critical for the warfighter, tactiXs is a valuable resource.

“It can be difficult for a mission to get X-band capacity on the WGS constellation because of the demand. There is also a hierarchy within the military that is often reflected in which mission gets access to WGS capacity. Some missions have priority.” – Patti Aston

There is also the ability to serve missions like training, testing, and airborne training missions. These are missions that require small amounts of connectivity for short periods of time. They’re also the missions that are most often preempted on the WGS satellite constellation.

tactiXs is an incredible solution to meet the connectivity requirements of these missions without waiting or for the military having to over-buy bandwidth.

GSR: What will the military need to do to access tactiXs? Is there a long lead time or notice needed to use the service? Is new hardware needed?

Patti Aston: There is virtually no lead time needed as long as you have the terminal. However, it would be beneficial to have an agreement set up ahead of time. That way, if the military knows there is the potential to use the service, that mission-critical capacity is simply a phone call or email away.

There is no special or proprietary hardware necessary to access the service. Military users simply need an X-band terminal similar to others already available and widely adopted across the military. We use the Dialog platform infrastructure so there is a good chance that similar hardware has already been deployed into the field.

The post tactiXs – supplementing military X-band with a flexible managed service appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The full end-to-end managed service provides practical, cost-effective solutions to mission parameters by allowing the customer to purchase a volume-based Mbps service, as opposed to MHz bandwidth agreements, whilst ensuring security and performance of the connectivity service.

Leveraging the GovSat-1 satellite, operated by GovSat, tactiXs delivers secure, non-preemptible X-band capacity to customers on an on-demand basis across any domain or austere environment in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Utilizing high-powered, steerable spot beams that can be quickly repositioned to provide robust coverage makes this solution well suited for any U.S. military or government-based mission whether it be comms-on-the-move or comms-on-the-pause.

“Our new service platform is a non-preemptible alternative to WGS that can handle the most tactical-edge customers’ data and mission requirements, and with no lead time required can be set up within hours for the mission at hand,” said President and CEO of SES Space and Defense, Brigadier General Pete Hoene, USAF (retired). “We are proud to partner with both Network Innovations and GovSat as we understand the demand for reliable, uncontended bandwidth and we are excited to bring this innovative and secure solution to the market.”

tactiXs can support a myriad of use cases required by military users, including covert missions and various types of special ops. The GovSat-1 satellite connectivity is ideally paired with the capabilities of the tactiXs platform and has all the key attributes of MILSATCOM such as anti-jam, encrypted telemetry & control as well as secure beam steering & control, and can augment the Wideband Global SATCOM system (WGS) with secure X- and Mil Ka- band capabilities.

“tactiXs is the only commercial satellite managed service available to the military that offers X-band satellite capacity on an as-needed, volume-based basis,” said Patti Aston, a Senior Director at SES Space and Defense. “By making capacity on GovSat-1 available as a short-term managed service, tactiXs enables the military to access X-band capacity specifically tailored to the mission in which communications are needed.”

The post SES Space and Defense launches tactiXs on-demand X-band service platform appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

<To watch GovSat-1 Launch on board the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, click HERE>

Designed exclusively for the government and defense community, GovSat-1 is the first satellite of GovSat, which is a joint venture between the Government of Luxembourg and the world-leading satellite operator SES.

Positioned at 21.5 degrees East, this satellite will be ideally located to support communications within Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and to provide highly reliable and flexible interconnectivity for defense and institutional applications within its coverage area. GovSat-1 will also enable operations over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Multi-mission Satellite
GovSat-1 was designed for dual use to support both defense and civil security applications, including mobile and fixed communications. It is a multi-mission satellite that offers X-band and Military Ka-band capacity. The spacecraft will provide up to six high-powered and fully steerable spot beams, as well as an advanced Global X-band beam.

The X-band frequency is reserved for governments and institutions, and is an ideal mean to establish secure and robust satellite communication links, for example between theaters of tactical operations, maritime missions or over areas affected by a humanitarian crisis.

The Military Ka-band will be used predominantly for mobility applications in support of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The secure communication links it enables are characterized by smaller high-throughput VSAT terminals.

The Mediterranean Sea is one particular area covered by a high-power beam in military Ka-band. It is therefore ideally suited to enable communications for European Border Surveillance applications.

Equipped with anti-jamming features, encrypted telemetry and control, and frequencies reserved for governmental use, GovSat-1 will also provide enhanced resilience capabilities for more reliable connectivity.

GovSat-1 was built by Orbital ATK, and designed to operate for 15 years in geostationary orbit. The spacecraft has a launch mass of 4,230 kg. GovSat-1 has a diverse mix of transponder sizes in terms of bandwidth per transponder, offering in total 68 transponder-equivalent units of 36 MHz.

For additional information about GovSat-1, download a brochure by clicking HERE. To watch the launch of GovSat-1 on board the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, click HERE.

The post GovSat-1 to deliver secure communications for governments appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The past couple of years have been an exciting time for the satellite industry. New technologies, increased demand for satellite-enabled solutions and the introduction of revolutionary, innovative players to the industry has the government watching the skies and looking to our commercial satellite industry for solutions.

There are many reasons for this renewed interest and focus on SATCOM. The desire to quickly have advanced capabilities and services everywhere – including on the move and at the tactical edge – has created a renewed need for resilient satellite services that can deliver incredible bandwidth, with lower latency and extremely high throughputs.

Simultaneously, the adoption of next-generation High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and the emergence, and subsequent expansion, of MEO constellations across the satellite industry will ensure that our market is prepared and poised to meet the challenges of a more sophisticated and demanding customer.

These same technologies also make COMSATCOM more accessible and cost effective for the government as it looks to satellite to deliver mission-critical communications across the globe.

The advancement and proliferation of space capabilities continued in 2016, as did the sober realization that traditional US government owned and operated systems may be vulnerable to service denial, disruption or degradation. The space environment is certainly not the benign environment it once was. That has caused our government and military leadership to seriously consider integrating additional commercial capabilities.

For example, by systematically leveraging a commercial satellite architecture and utilizing commercially hosted payloads, the US government could leverage an architecture poised to provide capability across the range of operational needs. As an example, 2016 saw the introduction of multiple exciting hosted payload programs across the government – including NASA’s GOLD program and the FAA’s WAAS program.

Many experts and satellite owner-operators – including SES – are anticipating near-record demand for satellite services across global governments in 2017 and beyond. The US Department of Defense, seeing the need to evaluate it’s future space architecture, launched an innovative Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) to fully examine their options. The commercial satellite industry figures to weigh heavily in that analysis.

Winston Beauchamp, Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space, relayed the following at a round table discussion at the World Policy Institute last year, “Today we build a military satellite constellation, and if we run out of capacity we lease more from the commercial world. But that may not be the best solution in the future. Instead we may want a balance of both commercial and military so that we give incentive from industry to build additional mission assurance and resilience measures into their architecture. By inviting our partners to weigh in in the analysis of alternatives, we can vastly improve our mission assurance.”

The Government Satellite Report remains committed to bringing you the latest satellite news, editorial glimpses into the trends driving commercial satellite adoption, discussions about the latest satellite technologies and insightful interviews with government and satellite industry leaders in 2017. But first, here is a look at some of the articles that our readers found most compelling in 2016. Thank you for being a loyal reader.

Download the Government Satellite Report’s Year in Review for 2016 by clicking HERE.

The post Satellite advancements have government watching the skies – a 2016 year in review appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

In 2015, we’ve seen the continued emergence of New Space. Driven by interest from Silicon Valley and a new crop of innovative startup companies, new and exciting capabilities are either available now – or are soon to become available – via satellite. These new satellite capabilities and new participants in the industry are being fueled by cheaper launch costs and the emergence of less expensive satellite busses and technologies. Together, they’re creating a renewed vigor in space and satellites and introducing some exciting new business models and services that we previously would have thought impossible.

And then there was the emergence of LEO and MEO satellite constellations. These low-latency, high throughput satellite constellations are promising fiber-like speeds and are capable of not only filling the ever-growing bandwidth demands of people across the globe, but also delivering connectivity to areas that currently don’t have wired networks.

Finally, this year bared witness to something that was a long time coming – a shift in how the United States military views, embraces and acquires satellite solutions.

Today, representatives from COMSATCOM companies sit side-by-side with military personnel in the Commercial Integration Cell (CIC) within the Joint Space Operations Center to ensure that information sharing can occur and threats to satellites are identified and neutralized before anything can happen. Authority for purchasing satellite services is being consolidated to ensure that the military has the bandwidth they need, when they need it and at a more reasonable price point. And COMSATCOM is widely being viewed by senior space leaders within the military as an integral part of their mission and a vital piece of their combined satellite infrastructure.

We couldn’t have picked a better year to launch the GovSat Report. From behind our monitors and keyboards, in conference rooms at satellite industry events and at live demonstrations of satellite technologies and capabilities, we’ve gotten to watch first-hand as the industry evolved and a new, exciting era began. And we can’t wait to see what 2016 holds.

Thank you for making the GovSat Report one of your go-to stops for government satellite news, trends and opinions in 2015. We look forward to bringing you more news from space in 2016 and beyond. In the meantime, here is a look back at some of our best stories and interviews from the past year:

Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond discusses military’s need for COMSATCOM at SATCON 2015
The promise of New Space, the introduction of startups and innovative technology firms looking to do new and exciting things in space, and the decreasing cost of doing business in space has the industry buzzing about what the future holds for the industry. However, the discussions at the conference also illustrated the negative side of this rapid satellite and space expansion, as the need to secure assets in space in what is increasingly becoming a contested environment dominated much of the discussion. One of those trends – the need to protect satellite assets – was discussed at length during the keynote address by Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, Commander of the 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) Air Force Space Command, and the Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space at U.S. Strategic Command.

Why NASA is Upping its TEMPO as a Hosted Payload – a Q&A with NASA’s David Beals
The desire to accomplish its mission in space without breaking the bank has led NASA to embrace Hosted Payloads. Hosted Payloads effectively involve the placement of government payloads on commercial spacecraft. This enables government agencies – such as NASA – to “hitch a ride” to space instead of paying to build and launch their own satellites. One of NASA’s upcoming Hosted Payload programs is TEMPO. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dave Beals, the TEMPO Program Manager at NASA, to discuss the program, what data it will deliver to NASA, how it will help the government and why NASA chose to launch TEMPO as a Hosted Payload. Here is what Mr. Beals had to say…

HTS – why big beams are a big deal to the military
One of the hottest technologies and topics in the SATCOM community is the emergence of high throughput satellites (HTS). In fact, the interest in HTS is so high across both the private and public sectors that discussion of the technology virtually dominated a large portion of both SATELLITE 2015 and the 2015 Space Symposium. Why is there so much attention being paid to HTS? Well, many enterprises and organizations look at bandwidth the way people look at money – they really can’t get enough.

Inclined satellites – how agencies can achieve major savings
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…

SATCON conversations center on the promise of New Space
If the speakers and panelists at this year’s SATCON Conference were to be believed, reports about the death of satellite have been grossly exaggerated. In fact, it seems that the future for satellite is brighter than it ever has been. Some background – last week I had the opportunity to attend SATCON, one of the year’s largest satellite conferences that takes place as part of the National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB) Content and Communications World (CCW) event. The conference brought COMSATCOM providers, manufacturers of spacecraft and ground terminals and even government decision makers together to look at the major trends and challenges impacting the satellite industry today. One of the largest trends – and a reason for so much excitement – was new space…

Protecting satellites a major concern in New Space age
Based on the panel discussions and side sessions at this year’s conference, it was clear that a new energy and spark has been ignited within the satellite community – one being ignited by a new wave of innovation from startup companies that are entering the space industry. The drivers for these new startup companies – whose emergence is being tabbed New Space – are reduced barriers to entry thanks in large part to decreased launch and satellite construction costs. Although the emergence of New Space and the increased attention and excitement around the satellite industry, it comes at a price. The decreased cost to build satellites, the emergence of veritable “commercially available, off the shelf” satellites and the increased access to space thanks to cheaper, more convenient launch could create as many challenges as opportunities.

Exploring why the Military Eschews a Cost Saving Satellite Solution
Unfortunately, the MDA was pretty lonely when it came to military organizations speaking about their effective hosted payload programs. Not because programs haven’t been effective, but mostly due to the fact that these programs are few and far between. An overarching theme at this year’s Summit was the dearth of military hosted payload programs and ways in which to remedy it. In fact, an entire panel, entitled, “How to get more military end-users on military hosted payloads,” wrapped up this year’s program. There were multiple valid reasons and opinions as to why the military continues to eschew hosted payloads. Unfortunately, many of these seemed to be based on fear, a lack of education and a general difference in how the military and private industry operates.

The post 2015 an exciting year for COMSATCOM and space appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

As we discussed in previous posts, this conference came at a very exciting time for the satellite industry. The promise of New Space, the introduction of startups and innovative technology firms looking to do new and exciting things in space, and the decreasing cost of doing business in space has the industry buzzing about what the future holds for the industry. However, the discussions at the conference also illustrated the negative side of this rapid satellite and space expansion, as the need to secure assets in space in what is increasingly becoming a contested environment dominated much of the discussion.

One of those trends – the need to protect satellite assets – was discussed at length during the keynote address by Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, Commander of the 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) Air Force Space Command, and the Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space at U.S. Strategic Command.

But before delving into why satellites are at risk, the General discussed the role that SATCOM and COMSATCOM are playing in today’s military and why it’s so important to protect them. As the General, himself, stated, “The United States military is going to spend $10 Billion this year on space alone.” And that investment is being made for a very good reason. In the General’s words, “There’s nothing that goes on today in theater that isn’t enabled or enhanced by the space capabilities that we provide.”

With SATCOM services and capabilities so essential for the military today, protecting them is a priority. But what, exactly, are we protecting them from?

There are three disparate threats that can drastically impact the military’s SATCOM infrastructure and ability to deliver essential SATCOM services to the warfighter – congestion, direct attack and natural phenomenon. When the United States first began launching military satellites, only one of these was an issue – natural threats from phenomenon such as solar weather. These were the only threats, because space was a relatively benign environment, free of adversaries and with little commercial satellite traffic.

Today, that environment is drastically different. Congestion from commercial satellites, debris and satellites from other nations all pose a collision risk for America’s military satellites. The scope of this issue was well illustrated by the General, when he said, “On average, once every three days, a satellite maneuvers to avoid hitting another satellite. Last year alone, the International Space Station was moved three times.”

Then there are overt acts of aggression from our adversaries in space. The U.S. and its allies aren’t the only nations with satellites any more. Our adversaries are now utilizing satellites in the same ways and for the same benefits as the United States. As General Raymond put it, “Adversaries have had a front-row seat, watching our success and figuring out the operational, strategical, and tactical advantages that we gain from [SATCOM].”

Seeing the benefits and capabilities that SATCOM is enabling for the warfighter, our adversaries are now identifying ways to neutralize satellites so that they can gain a tactical advantage on the battlefield. One example the General provided involved the kinetic ASAT satellite that China tested in 2007, which destroyed a satellite – creating concern and even more potentially-harmful space debris as a result.

To help combat these threats and keep satellites safe, the military needs up-to-date, accurate information about the location of debris and satellites in space. And to get the most data possible, they’re partnering with COMSATCOM providers, according to General Raymond:

“In the past, we haven’t had to have partnerships. We could do it by ourselves. The domain was a benign place. We didn’t have to have partnerships as much with [COMSATCOM providers]. That’s not the case today…The US Strategic Command has signed space situational awareness data sharing agreements with 50 different companies around the globe, a lot of different governments and their agencies and this allows for the two-way sharing of space situational awareness.”

The Air Force also integrated COMSATCOM providers into the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), a command and control system that executes Strategic Command’s space mission. By having COMSATCOM providers together with military personnel, information sharing and decision making can be done more effectively and efficiently.

General Raymond also referenced how COMSATCOM services can help to protect government SATCOM from other threats – including direct attack by adversaries. Spreading military data, sensors and communications across commercial satellites and via hosted payloads can increase resiliency through deception and disaggregation, while also providing redundancy if government satellites go offline or are otherwise compromised.

General Raymond described the role that COMSATCOM can play in the protection of military SATCOM capabilities when he said, “Disaggregation is one of the options that we’re looking at for resiliency in space. Sensors previously contained on a single satellite are dispersed across several, smaller, less complex and more affordable satellites. We can spread these capabilities across a number of different platforms, including hosted payloads, free-flying payloads, smaller satellites, government, commercial and others. This will make adversary’s tactical and targeting problems much more difficult.”

Despite the benefits of COMSATCOM, which carries approximately 60 percent of the military’s communication, there are still some challenges to increased, seamless integration of COMSATCOM into the military’s SATCOM networks and systems. The way the military currently purchases COMSATCOM services has led to an environment where COMSATCOM and government-owned satellite assets are not looked at as one, integrated platform. This eliminates the military’s ability to rapidly reallocate data to COMSATCOM satellites, reduces agility and creates other inefficiencies.

This sentiment was echoed by Retired Major General Jay Santee, who currently serves as the Director of Resilient, Affordable Space at The MITRE Corporation, during a panel discussion featuring General Raymond and multiple members of the COMSATCOM industry. In his introductory remarks during the panel discussion, General Santee called for an end to the traditional one year contracts that the government currently uses for purchasing COMSATCOM services and, instead, challenged the military to more robustly integrate and partner with industry – working to bring COMSATCOM bandwidth into the enterprise and build it into the network.

The post Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond discusses military’s need for COMSATCOM at SATCON 2015 appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

This new satellite, which is being referred to as “GovSat,” will provide satellite communications and connectivity to government customers via high-powered and steerable spot beams that utilize dedicated military frequencies – known as X-band and military Ka-band.

To learn more about “GovSat” and its possible use cases for the U.S. and other world governments, we sat down with Jürgen Espanion, head of Government & Institutions (G&I) for SES and Tim Deaver, the Vice President of Corporate Development at SES Space and Defense. Here is what they had to say:

GovSat Report: What will be the mission of this governmental satellite?

Mr. Espanion: GovSat will be a geostationary telecommunications satellite operating in frequency bands reserved for military communication services, known as X-band and military Ka-band. The capacity will be made available to governmental and institutional customers for defense and governmental applications.

The high-powered and fully steerable spot beams will be able to support multiple operations. The spacecraft will be positioned over the European arc with coverage areas over Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

GovSat Report: How did the “GovSat” program come to be? Where did the concept originate from?

Mr. Espanion: It really started as an idea many years ago when G&I first formed. However, the first concrete talks with the Luxembourg government about a dedicated satellite for governmental use started later, in 2008, when we had the potential to work with Norway on a dedicated military satellite. Norway did not possess the orbital rights and would have needed to work with SES and the Luxembourg Government to launch their own dedicated government satellite. Unfortunately, it never came together.

However, we were dedicated to the concept of a government specific satellite that would utilize military frequencies to connect government entities. We were able to get the Luxembourg Government on board as the anchor customer and proceeded with plans for the construction and launch of the spacecraft.

GovSat Report: Is this the first partnership between SES and the Luxembourg government? Why was Luxembourg interested in the “GovSat” program?

Mr. Espanion: We are actually working with the Luxembourg government on several ESA initiatives. With regard to defense, we have actually already been providing satellite capacity and services to the Luxembourg Ministry of Defence and partners of the North Atlantic Alliance since 2009.

GovSat is an important contribution for Luxembourg to the NATO alliance. The Luxembourg government will be able to offer satellite capacity to other governments, NATO or the EU. Luxembourg, as a highly respected member of inter-governmental organizations, provides privileged access to other governments and international organizations as potential customers for the GovSat capacity.

Mr. Deaver: It’s important to also point out that – as a member of NATO – Luxembourg and other nations make contributions – financial or otherwise – to the organization. Luxembourg will have the ability to purchase and donate capacity from GovSat to other NATO nations, which will make this capacity available to them at no cost.

GovSat Report: What other governments would be able to utilize “GovSat?” What use cases would they have for the satellite?

Mr. Deaver: We set out to build and launch the first true commercial satellite that is meant for strictly government use and that utilizes the X-band and military Ka-band. The GovSat satellite is built specifically to be compatible and work seamlessly with existing government satellite networks.

That being said, GovSat would be extremely valuable to NATO and other nations that have significant military presences and operations in the satellite’s coverage area, which – as Jürgen stated – includes Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Countries, such as the United States, could utilize GovSat to help increase the available bandwidth, deliver essential military data and support their missions in a part of the globe where they not only have a large military presence, but are currently conducting military operations.

GovSat Report: With multiple nations utilizing “GovSat” to distribute mission-critical data, I would assume security is a major concern and priority. Was security taken into account in the conceptualization and execution of the “GovSat” program?

Mr. Deaver: Security is obviously a major concern when it comes to data and communications from multiple nations being transmitted by the same satellite. Although I can’t give out too many specifics, I can say that GovSat was designed and built with features designed to meet all information assurance requirements of the U.S. government and other nations.

GovSat Report: What is the status of the program? Where does “GovSat” stand today? What’s the next big milestone in the project?

Mr. Espanion: We have evaluated offers from satellite manufacturers in order to procure the GovSat and SES teams are working on the so-called ‘Bringing Into Use’ (BIU) mission of the required frequency filings, which will ensure that the GovSat can operate under a Luxembourg filing. All told, the “GovSat” spacecraft is intended for launch and operation in 2017.

For more information on the “GovSat” program, click on these additional resources:

SES Orders New Satellite in Joint Venture with Luxembourg

Airbus, Boeing and Orbital ATK Split SES Satellite Order

The post Launching a new government-dedicated satellite for a more connected military – a Q&A with Jürgen Espanion of SES & Tim Deaver of SES Space and Defense appeared first on SES Space and Defense.