Army Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, director of the network cross-functional team for Army Futures Command, said the service is looking for high-capacity network backbone services as part of Capability Set 23, the next technology on-ramp in its incremental modernization strategy.

“And that seems like mid Earth orbit satellite constellations and low Earth orbit satellite constellations, which give us significantly more bandwidth and lower latency, and in some cases, it’s almost like having fiber-optic cable through a space-based satellite link,” Gallagher said during the recent 2020 C4ISRNET conference.

The Army’s network modernization strategy is being carried out in two-year increments, called Capability Sets, through 2028. For each increment, the Army identifies specific technologies for experimentation, the results of which inform equipment-buying decisions.

The first technology infusion, Capability Set 21, primarily features lightweight equipment including tactical radios, commercial 4G technologies, drone-mounted antennas, and satellite terminals. Those technologies are undergoing testing now, although the Army has had to make some schedule adjustments due to the coronavirus outbreak, Gallagher said.

For Capability Set 23, the Army will experiment with emerging technologies that can be applied on a much broader scale to provide a common operating picture of the battlefield. “Some of that is not ready yet, but it is a technology that we are planning to prototype with over the next year … at this time next year we’ll be conducting the preliminary design review of Capability Set 23,” Gallagher said.

Several companies have proposed large constellations of broadband satellites in low Earth orbit, and two of these are in the early stages of deployment. In contrast, SES already operates a 20-satellite broadband constellation in medium Earth orbit called O3b MEO.

The DoD has traditionally relied on communications services from geostationary-orbiting satellites whose high altitude, 36,000 kilometers above the equator, introduces signal transmission delays that can adversely impact certain applications. O3b MEO, whose satellites orbit roughly at 8,000 kilometers, delivers data at fiber-like speeds to anywhere on the globe with minimal latency.

In an article published in October on the Army’s official website, Gallagher hinted at the value of low-latency services. “We wish to determine how [low and medium Earth orbit satellites] will fit into the network backbone design to provide high capacity and low latency throughput, which would enable the Army to leverage cloud and edge computing,” he said.

High latency also imposes limitations on the operation of unpiloted aerial vehicles from U.S.-based control centers, and hinders the military’s response time in a variety of scenarios, including attacks with hypersonic weapons, experts say.

According to Pete Hoene, President & CEO at SES Space and Defense, the latency associated with O3b MEO is nominally 125 milliseconds roundtrip, compared to 500 milliseconds from a geostationary satellite system.

In 2018, the Department of Defense (DoD) signed a Blanket Purchase Agreement with a ceiling of $516.7 million with SES Space and Defense for access to O3b MEO services through April 2023. This contract follows several previous DoD contracts for O3b MEO services, including a 2016 arrangement that enabled U.S. forces to rapidly backhaul large files of battlefield intelligence information to exploitation centers.

The capability of SES’s medium Earth orbit constellation will increase significantly in 2022 when their next-generation O3b mPOWER satellites become operational. Each O3b mPOWER satellite will provide high throughput, low-latency connectivity through shapeable and dynamically reconfigurable beams that can support an array of applications including data-intensive ISR missions or comms-on-the-move applications.

“O3b MEO capabilities have already proven to be a tried and trusted tool for the U.S. military,” said Hoene. “Our next-generation O3b mPOWER constellation will include an order of magnitude improvement in number of beams and throughput, making them ideal candidates to satisfy US Government high throughput, low latency requirements. It’s a connectivity solution designed to adapt to the needs of our warfighters’ missions and keep our troops connected to the intelligence they need at the tactical edge.”

According to Gallagher, the Army already is working with prospective Capability Set 23 technology providers.  The service held a technical interchange in November that attracted 672 participants, which was followed by a call for white papers that helped narrow down the field of technologies, he said.

“We conducted a shark tank in March and we’re working through the statements of work right now with some of the vendors that have been selected,” Gallagher said. “…Hopefully, we’ll have all those contracts let no later than July.”

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The Pentagon’s commercial SATCOM purchasing agent, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), continues to buy commercial capacity as needed on the spot market, a practice industry officials say makes it difficult for them to plan and invest in military-oriented capabilities.

Pete Hoene, President and Chief Executive Officer of SES Space and Defense, argues that DISA should embrace the mindset that appears to be taking hold at US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), traditionally a buyer of military space hardware. Through its Pathfinder series of initiatives, SMC is experimenting with new ways to procure commercial SATCOM capacity and partner with industry.

The dialogue has taken on a higher urgency of late as the Air Force pursues an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) for replacing the current military-owned Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) communications system. WGS is the backbone of the US military SATCOM fleet, but many industry and government officials say the time has come to hand that mission to the private sector.

One of the latest discussion venues was the 2017 MilSatCom USA conference in Arlington, Va., sponsored by SMi Group. Among the featured speakers was US Army Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, director of architecture, operations, networks and space in the Office of the Army Chief Information Officer.

I had the opportunity to discuss these acquisition issues with Mr. Hoene following that conference. Here is what he had to say:

Warren Ferster: What were some of your biggest takeaways from the MilSatCom USA conference?

Mr. Hoene: One of the biggest takeaways for me was Gen. Gallagher’s comments, and his plea to industry to help provide more innovative solutions.  He said they uncovered a treasure trove of information while conducting operations overseas and they had no way of getting that information back to their exploitation centers in a timely manner.  So they reached out to industry, who came through with a high-throughput, low-latency capability that was able to backhaul vast amounts of information.  That ability to rapidly backhaul critical information (via our O3b MEO solution) was a breakthrough for deployed forces.  As a result of the increased capability, they were able to quickly process information and get it back to the theater of operations within hours, not weeks or months.

Warren Ferster: He clearly was talking about SES’s medium Earth orbit (MEO) O3b constellation.  Why is low-latency so important?

Mr. Hoene: A system that provides a round-trip signal turnaround time of about 200 milliseconds enables users to leverage cloud-based applications. At geostationary orbit (GEO), where you might have 500 milliseconds of round-trip time, it becomes very difficult to use cloud-based applications. What happens in a low-latency scenario is that this acknowledgement or non-acknowledgment of a transaction, or task, happens almost at fiber-like speeds. Therefore, with the O3b MEO solution, you don’t get timeouts or applications that drop out; the users stay connected. When you get to two times that amount of latency, you are susceptible to timeouts and potential problems. Don’t get me wrong: 90 percent of our customer base is GEO and we need to maintain the support we provide from GEO. But there’s a growing need that was unfilled until our proven MEO capabilities came along.

Warren Ferster: How has that growing need translated into contracts?

Mr. Hoene: We have been very fortunate to have several MEO contracts with the US government. Two of the contracts support COCOM efforts in theater and another supports NOAA’s National Weather Service Office out of American Samoa.   Yet another effort supports a new pilot program for a key US government customer overseas.

Warren Ferster: Were there any more important conference takeaways for you?

Mr. Hoene: I was there for the panel on the Wideband AoA. The problem I had with that panel is that they kept dancing around the AoA criteria and how they would accurately incorporate and represent commercial capabilities.  To me, it’s absolutely crystal clear.  Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of US Strategic Command, is probably the most informed warfighter on active duty on the topic.  I like what he said recently: “You also have to ask yourself on the wideband side, with the wideband commercial side, why are we even buying wideband satellites? Why don’t we have the commercial side that’s already built them in three years go ahead and buy them for us, and we’ll just lease it back or come up with some other arrangement in order to do that.” 

Warren Ferster: By industry, are you referring to satellite operators as opposed to manufacturers?

Mr. Hoene: I’m actually referring to both.  Why not reach out to owner-operators and manufacturers? I wouldn’t exclude the manufacturers because I think WGS prime contractor Boeing has shown that they can do it. But the owner-operators in my mind are needed because they offer the ability to manage constellations of satellites very efficiently.   You have to ask the question, “do you really want to continue to manage a constellation of WGS satellites with a large military force, or do you want to turn it over to industry?”  At our satellite operations center we have eight to ten people that manage 53 satellites in GEO and 12 satellites in MEO.  Others in our industry do something very similar for their fleet, so you don’t really need to have a standing army to manage these.

Warren Ferster: DISA’s reluctance to enter into long-term satellite leases has long been a concern for owner-operators. DISA appears content with the status quo because it is getting attractive prices on the spot market. Your thoughts?

Mr. Hoene: I’ve had this discussion with leaders at DISA and cautioned them not to try to commoditize what many of us in the SATCOM industry consider vital infrastructure. DISA doesn’t buy SATCOM the way they buy fiber. They buy fiber in long-term contracts and they treat it as vital infrastructure. Buying SATCOM on the spot market and treating it as a commodity, not vital infrastructure, makes the owner-operators like us question if we should invest in future capabilities that the Department of Defense and US government might need in the long run, such as added security features. As a former Air Force senior leader I find that to be a very risky proposition.  Buying short-term spot market capacity may support peacetime needs but provides no guarantee that the additional capacity the DoD needs in a crisis will be available.  If we had a stronger mission partner – industry partner relationship, we could look at more innovative contracting strategies that could make reserve or pre-emptible capacity available for key regions of the world and be ready to support US Government users in a moment’s notice.  We encourage DISA to increase its interaction with industry and to reverse the spot market and commoditization trend.

Additionally, I was talking with a senior Defense Department leader who said he would like to see commercial SATCOM treated just like military SATCOM so that if a WGS satellite gets jammed they can turn to a commercial satellite in the same region and with similar features to get the resiliency needed to operate through that jamming scenario.  This type of support doesn’t happen through spot-market leases.

Warren Ferster: DISA says long-term leases are problematic because the money it uses to buy commercial satellite services is budgeted on an annual basis.

Mr. Hoene: The vast majority of their SATCOM contracts are a base year plus four option years. It’s based on existing capacity and on operations and maintenance dollars or overseas contingency operations dollars, so there really isn’t a partnership or long-term horizon. I would suggest that they change the way they procure commercial SATCOM along the lines of the Pathfinder initiatives. We’re the proud partner with US Africa Command and Space and Missile Center (SMC) on Pathfinder 1 and we’re working with the Air Force on the remainder of the Pathfinder initiatives.

We would like DISA to try to do things more like SMC is doing rather than try to be a transaction processor for spot market commercial SATCOM. That would really enable me to carry the message to our parent company and to our board and say, “we should invest in specific satellite capabilities, beam structures, power considerations and security features to meet US government requirements.”  This type of interaction will go a long way to provide industry with investment incentives.

The beauty and the innovation that comes from the Pathfinder efforts is that it’s funded by procurement dollars, so you’ve got the stability of the budget backing the investment. As Congress appropriates those funds, industry knows there’s a commitment there to fund those efforts over a several year period.

We’re thankful for the Air Force’s groundbreaking work with the Pathfinder initiatives.  These efforts are making a difference and reflect well on the leadership of former SMC commander Lt Gen Sam Greaves and current SMC commander Lt Gen John Thompson.

Finally, we’re also thankful for the leadership and vision Congress has shown by encouraging the DoD to find more innovative ways to procure commercial SATCOM for a number of years.   They have been consistent in trying to get the DoD to take some risks and find new ways to satisfy their SATCOM requirements.

SES Space and Defense is clearly excited about our differentiated MEO and GEO capabilities of our fleet and are poised and ready to usher in the breakthroughs we discussed.  We’re convinced commercial satellites are a critical component of a fully integrated, resilient national security space architecture and look forward to bringing advanced capabilities to our government partners in the near future.

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Far flung military forces rely heavily on remote data processing capabilities that are highly sensitive to transmission delays, or latency, associated with communications satellites in geostationary orbit, some 36,000 kilometers above the equator, these experts said. Satellites in lower orbits do not have the same latency issues, making them better suited to support certain data-intensive military operations.

Speaking at MilSatCom USA, which was organized by the SMi Group of London, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, currently director of architecture, operations, networks and space in the office of the Army’s Chief Information Officer, served up a real-world example to illustrate the trend.

In 2016, U.S. forces operating on the ground against Islamic State fighters in Syria captured what Gallagher characterized as “treasure troves” of battlefield intelligence that would enable them to strike the enemy even harder.

“The problem was [that] the pipes were not there to get that [information] back to do the exploitation necessary to help the special operators on the ground continue to take the fight to the enemy,” Gallagher said. “So, we had to find a creative solution.”

Installing terrestrial fiber links was not an option, said Gallagher, who at the time was a senior information officer assigned to U.S. Central Command. So the Army turned to the commercial satellite sector, in particular, they leveraged a constellation of broadband satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) to provide the necessary connectivity at about 60% of the cost of GEO backhaul.

“It required a lot of engineering, a tail circuit and a whole lot of creative planning but ultimately our intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capability was enhanced by an innovative partnership between the CENTCOM team and industry,” Gallagher said. “And we solved the problem.”

Gallagher did not name the constellation, but there is only one that fits the description: SES’ O3b MEO satellites providing fiber-quality broadband links in the low to mid-latitude regions of the world. The constellation is wholly owned by SES, one of the world’s largest operators of communications satellites.

Commercial geostationary satellites are of course a critical complement to the military’s own systems in keeping the U.S. military forces connected. It is well known, for example, that in the early days of the U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, up to 80 percent of the supporting satellite bandwidth was commercially provided.

MEO satellite constellations, such as O3b – which began commercial service in 2014, represent a new capability that Gallagher said is increasingly in high demand: low-latency, high-capacity throughput. Geostationary satellites can have high capacity but are saddled with the latency issue, while current LEO systems lack the capacity to quickly move large amounts of data.

U.S. Marine Corps. Col. Curtis Carlin, of the J6 Operations Division at CENTCOM, displayed a chart during his conference presentation that said low-latency, as an attribute, is becoming almost as important as capacity for military customers. The reason is the military’s increasing reliance on what he characterized as enterprise services, an information technology term that typically refers to the integration of multiple software packages into a single platform that can be broadly applied across an organization to support its mission.

Skyrocketing data requirements among forces deployed in places like Afghanistan and Iraq that lack usable terrestrial infrastructure are driving the requirement for lower-latency systems operating in LEO and MEO, Carlin said.

This could be a boon to MEO satellite operators, as well as companies like OneWeb, which plan to deploy huge constellations of LEO broadband satellites in the coming years.

Carlin said the Marines rely heavily on intelligence information processed on servers at locations far removed from the battlefield, such as at service headquarters in Quantico, Va., or CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Fla. This processed information must be transmitted back to forces quickly enough for them to act before the situation on the ground changes, putting a premium on low latency, he explained.

Such “reachback” capabilities relieve U.S. forces of having to lug data servers into the field with them, but drive up demand for low-latency, high-throughput satellite connectivity, industry officials said. Modern web-based applications are generally intolerant of latency, one industry official said.

As Gallagher put it, in relating how MEO satellites came to the rescue in 2016, “there are a lot more of those requirements brewing.”

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