Nowhere is this more apparent than in the INDOPACOM Area of Responsibility (AoR). This region spans 36 countries and incorporates more than 50 percent of the world’s total population. It’s also one of the most important for our military, strategically, since it’s the location of multiple adversaries. Unfortunately, much of this AoR is separated from the U.S. by a vast ocean.

To learn about some of the different ways the military is utilizing satellites and other communications methods to enable connectivity in the INDOPACOM AoR, the Government Technology Insider’s Peter Jacobs recently sat down with two experts: Chris Kinman, Vice President of Business Development at SES Space and Defense, and Fred Ferares, Director of Defense at Verizon. During their discussion, Peter asked Chris and Fred about how LEO and MEO satellite networks can deliver the high-throughput, high-reliability connectivity that’s critical to DoD’s mission.

Here is what they had to say:

Government Technology Insider (GTI): INDOPACOM covers a huge area of the globe and includes allies, trading partners and adversaries and DoD has assigned more than 200 ships and 375,000 personnel to the region. So with all that diversity—geographic, terrain, environmental, cultural—are there common communications challenges that U.S. forces are facing in this region?

Chris Kinman, SES Space and Defense (CK): Oh, absolutely. The wide space, the ocean coverage presents so many challenges. On top of that, the weather, as it changes over the years, is presenting another challenge for such a widely-dispersed military force. So, there’s been quite a bit of a challenge in that area.

Fred Ferares, Verizon (FF): I agree. They’ve got some significant capabilities that are already present within the region, and you look at fixed locations, like the bases, the posts, the camps, and the stations, they’re dealing with challenges for diversity, redundancy, reliability. And there’s a lot of capability, as I said, in the AOR. But when you get to the deployed forces and the contested environments that they may have to operate in, in time of war, bandwidth and redundancy of capability is going to be an enormous challenge that needs to be addressed, especially as we are seeing the evolution of disruptive technologies being pushed to the deployed forces.

GTI: Do these issues limit the kinds of technologies that can actually be used in theater? Are some things just not practical for that sort of deployment?

FF: I think some of these technologies would be practical, but we have to change the mode or the model in which we deliver bandwidth to the deployed forces. So, with the evolution of things like machine-to-machine and AI, various cloud-based services, software-defined networking to deliver all that bandwidth to execute these missions, I think you need reliable communications. But in addition to that, you need compute and storage at the edge.

Just to use Verizon as an example, we have a 5G capability that we’re rolling out in the United States that has intelligent edge networking to take care of offloading that bandwidth back into the core. And I think that the services need to develop a similar model so that they can deliver with a speed of need the data, the processing at the edge, in a low-latency type experience.

This gets back to how you’re going to be able to deliver these new, modern, disruptive technologies. And there are a lot of organizations that are focused on trying to help deliver this. You’ve got folks like DARPA and the various labs that are looking at different communications methodologies, different architectures to deliver these types of capabilities to the warfighter.

GTI: High-throughput, more reliable bandwidth obviously supports in theater warfighting functions like C5ISR, targeting, situational awareness, and ass Fred mentioned, edge computing. What else could the military take advantage of?

CK: As you indicated and Fred talked about with the technology getting better, what we’ve done is looked ahead and tried to leapfrog and determine how we can increase our capabilities. (We’re looking) at the latest technology, the most powerful satellites we can develop in this day and age, to try to figure out how we can actually increase throughput, trying to get all that latency out of the way so that we can do those things down at the tactical edge. Maybe do more computing power, more processing, and more storage locally, rather than relying on some of the cloud trends that are happening right now.

We understand that cloud is important and we could probably service that cloud capability or need with low latency satellites. But we’ve just tried to find the right mix and right solution that will enable that speed to a better technology in the future. So we push the limits with our satellite technology. We’ve got another seven satellites that we want to launch into a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) in the next couple of years. Once these are launched it  will definitely help you know what that need for lower latency, high throughput and better compute capability are at the edge of the battlefield.

FF: As Chris was saying, this ability to provide the low latency experience to the folks that are out there floating around on the oceans, for example, or as the DoD projects its power ashore and you need to bring that capability along with you. I think he’s exactly right that we also need to be able to deploy and support a capability to process at the edge, to store at the edge. And when you’re disconnected, operate at the edge. But then, when we rely upon the communications paths that are available—the satellite architecture that’s being improved every day as we speak—when that connection is restored, that we’re able to reach back to those various command and control nodes and  other resources outside the INDOPACOM AOR that can help us affect the DOD’s mission.

CK: Let me add something else related to the new satellite technologies in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). What that actually provides is additional inherent resiliency and security. The fact that these satellites are actually moving overhead—like a mobile cell phone tower is actually moving overhead—all of that that technology that provides the linkage and the handoff and the network connectivity, that’s all been built-in years in the past, and we’ve been able to deploy that technology with these MEO satellites and provide lower latency (and) more security because they are moving, and provide additional bandwidth because they’re so low to the Earth. And that gives us more frequency space to provide other security measures for the waveform that’s actually provided to these end users that are out in remote areas in the Pacific.

GTI: What about interference with that technology – jamming and direct attacks on satellites? Are these risks greater with Medium Earth Orbit satellites?

CK: No, they’re actually a lot less because, the fact that the satellites are moving overhead, it requires the capability of threat forces to actually track those satellites, and that’s very difficult to do. The beams that are laid down on the Earth are very narrow and they’re very hard to detect because you have to actually be within that beam. The data that’s actually going through these satellite beams are encrypted and may, in fact, be spread using spread spectrum techniques to protect the waveform. So, all those variables contribute to a more secure and reliable sort of inherent anti-jam solution. So, we’re in a really good spot right now with the next generation of satellites.

GTI: When you’re dealing in these austere environments where personnel are widely dispersed, is interference a major issue?

FF: At the core of this is a question of how does the DOD execute its mission: do we use commercial SATCOM capabilities or stick to just military SATCOM capabilities? I think that the DOD should consider some sort of a blended approach in its architecture. My opinion only, not validated by any research here, but I wouldn’t think that an adversary would want to take out the entire satellite architecture that probably supports its own government and economies.

And at the scale that we’re talking about, too, for some sort of countermeasures against satellite communications, some sort of jamming, missiles, or any other type of technology to disable or destroy a satellite orbiting in support of the U.S. forces, when you start having the number of Lower and Middle Earth Orbit satellites that are available—you’ve got companies like SES here and then Amazon and OneWeb and Elon Musk and you name it—there’s a lot of different folks that are talking about adding to that satellite constellation at multiple different levels to support passing data around the planet.

So, I think if we can leverage what’s available and that helps us with our diversity and our redundancy in some sort of a meshed construct, I think the Department of Defense will benefit from that and minimize any risk to taking out pieces/parts/portions of the satellite architecture.

For the rest of their exciting interview, click HERE to read the original article on the Government Technology Insider. For additional information on the role that MEO and GEO satellite can play in enabling communications in the INDOPACOM AoR, click HERE to download the white paper, “High Throughput on the High Seas.”

The post How satellite can enable connectivity in the INDOPACOM AoR appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

You only have to look at a map or globe to see why INDOPACOM faces logistical issues and challenges.

Its Area of Responsibility (AoR) is enormous – approximately half of the globe. The AoR also encompasses 36 different nations and includes more than 50 percent of the world’s total population. Those 36 different nations and their large populations are separated from the United States by a massive ocean. Between the United States and many of its adversaries on the other side of that ocean is nothing but a few tiny islands.

While the IDOPACOM’s AoR faces the geographical isolation and subsequent logistical issues that only seemingly endless miles of ocean can create, it’s also an increasingly important AoR for our nation’s military.

Two of the country’s largest, near-peer adversaries – Russia and China – are in the AoR, as well as one of our most unpredictable adversaries, North Korea. The presence of these adversaries and some of their recent, provocative activities has the Department of Defense more focused on the INDOPACOM AoR than they have been in decades.

With the INDOPACOM AoR increasingly important for our nation’s military and national defense, how can the DoD ensure that the more than 200 ships and 375,000 personnel assigned to that theater have the tools and technologies that they need to accomplish their missions?

Bandwidth is essential
Today’s modern, advanced military relies on applications and IT solutions. From weapons systems, to operations, to ISR activities, practically everything that the military does today relies on IT networks and capabilities. Information Superiority is critical to all warfighting domains.

Unfortunately, in the INDOPACOM AoR, networks are a problem because of the logistical challenges that we laid out.

There are no terrestrial networks in the middle of the ocean. On the other side of that ocean, the terrestrial networks that do exist can also be problematic. They can be controlled by our adversaries, pass through territories controlled by adversaries or otherwise just lack the reliability and mission assurance we need for terrestrial networks that are going to be carrying mission-critical and essential data.

The simple solution for this has been satellite. However, DoD mandates are driving military applications and solutions to the cloud, while military applications have grown increasingly complex and bandwidth hungry.  Together, these attributes preclude using the higher latency and lower bandwidth satellite solutions traditionally available to the military.

As a result, the military hasn’t really pushed the envelope on the different kinds of technologies and capabilities they could implement within the INDOPACOM AoR. One could argue that they have become accustomed to the bandwidth and capacity readily available and have allowed that to become its own constraint – and to their own detriment. That’s because there are many other incredible use cases for today’s advanced technologies that could help combat the distance challenges of the AoR if they could only figure out their bandwidth issue.

MEO and HTS to the rescue
Luckily, new technologies and innovations in satellites and satellite networks could help to eliminate the bandwidth and latency challenges facing the DoD in the INDOPACOM AoR.

A new generation of high-throughput satellites (HTS) are drastically increasing the throughputs and bandwidth of satellite networks. Other advancements allowing for satellites to be placed in orbits closer to the earth – including the LEO and MEO orbits – are helping to drastically reduce latency.

The placement of HTS satellites in MEO has proven capable of delivering fiber-like connectivity and throughputs to users. These satellites can deliver an experience on par with many terrestrial networks. And that experience can be delivered to practically anywhere on Earth where a beam can be placed.

This makes advanced IT solutions a reality, even in the middle of the ocean, and makes it possible for the same IT tools, applications and capabilities that military personnel rely on at home to be available when they’re deployed in the INDOPACOM AoR.

With no bandwidth concerns to stymie the imagination of military leaders and decision makers, there is virtually no limit to the different technology implementations that can be adopted by INDOPACOM to increase operational efficiency, increase mission effectiveness and help overcome the logistical challenges of a difficult AoR.

Here are just a few.

4K HD video for ISR – Long gone are the days of the military relying on grainy, black-and-white photos for their intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Today’s military relies on high quality, real time video for ISR. HD video and large GEOINT files require massive amounts of bandwidth.

With fiber-like connectivity available to every ship at sea in the INDOPACOM AoR, the latest, greatest and highest quality intelligence can be made available to all warfighters in theater, ensuring that they’re always capable of making decisions with the most up-to-date, accurate and actionable intelligence.

VTC for telemedicine – There are more than 200 ships in the INDOPACOM AoR. It can take a ship anywhere from 15-30 days to cross the Pacific. This makes bringing timely, specialized medical care and treatment to every warfighter and civilian in the AoR that much harder. However, with advanced video teleconferencing (VTC) solutions used in telemedicine implementations, immediate, specialized care can be made available – even to those that are thousands of miles away.

Although the bandwidth needed for a quality video connection has decreased over time, the quality HD video needed to adequately deliver care via telemedicine can require high throughput and low latency connections. With MEO satellite bandwidth, quality, specialized care can be available from anywhere – helping to improve outcomes and deliver healthcare services to military personnel more quickly and efficiently.

Vehicle maintenance and repair – the more than 200 ships and thousands of aircraft are in the INDOPACOM AoR for a reason. Each are needed in some capacity to help accomplish the mission. If these vehicles and weapons systems are necessary, then it’s important that they’re always operational and functioning.

Today’s network-connected sensors and devices are capable of identifying issues within a weapons system or military platform before they cause legitimate problems or system failure. However, these sensors require network connections to operate.

Should a weapons system or vehicle fail, high throughput, low latency connections can deliver maintenance or repair technicians in theater via video to help diagnose the problem. They can even be used to access schematics and plans for parts so that they can be 3D printed in-theater.

Today’s modern technologies are capable of delivering massive benefits to the military – many of which can help to overcome the logistical challenges and problems posed by the INDOPACOM AoR. However, these technologies and innovations are only available with the network connections and bandwidth necessary to carry the data they need to operate.

The next generation of MEO HTS satellites can deliver that bandwidth to virtually anywhere on the globe – meaning that the capabilities available in theater to INDOPACOM are limited only to what’s technologically feasible today, and the imagination.

To learn more about the potential benefits of MEO in maritime environments, download the whitepaper, “High Throughput on the High Seas.”

The post Overcoming the distance challenges of the INDOPACOM AoR with SATCOM appeared first on SES Space and Defense.