During our discussion, we asked Ram about the challenges that an austere space domain creates for the DoD, the technological challenges that the military faces when trying to integrate satellite networks with coalition and industry partners, and what some industry leaders are doing to make the seamless management of unified global networks a possibility for our military.

One of the advancements and innovative solutions available to the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Portal, a recently-released application that can enable military users to see their entire network – including both space and ground assets – on a single pane of glass. This new solution gives the military transparency into everything on their networks and allows for the easier management and operations of both terrestrial and space network assets and capabilities.

In the second part of our conversation with Ram, we asked specifically about the ICT Portal – what functionality it offers, how it can help the DoD, and what it will enable for the warfighter.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): In our last discussion, you talked about the sheer number of different space and ground networks that the DoD needs to see and manage as they work to integrate their own space assets with those of coalition and industry partners. How does the lack of a single, all-encompassing view of the network impact the military’s ability to manage its networks to overcome denied or disrupted capabilities or services? How does this impact the warfighter in the field?

Ram Rao: I have heard every high-ranking official in our military discuss the need to increase the speed of delivery and the speed of operations. But to accomplish this, they need end-to-end communications and data-centric global networks.

They are also looking to reduce the latency in satellite networks from the 600ms offered by satellites in Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) to the 150-50ms offered by satellites in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO).

Timing is everything for warfighters. It’s no surprise that our adversaries are working towards pursuing efficient delivery capabilities. To continue to compete and win in the future, we need to remain faster and more effective despite their efforts.

“The ICT Portal is a web-based NetOps set of tools providing end-to-end situational awareness in a consumable “single pane of glass” user interface.” – Ram Rao

Global integration of our networks is crucial for seamless connectivity from one end of Earth to the other through various space and ground connections. The lack of a unified network will significantly and adversely impact the speed at which we deliver information and capabilities to warfighters, drastically reducing their effectiveness. However, with an integrated, resilient network – and agreed-upon access – there should not be any denials or disruptions.

GSR: What is the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Portal? What was the initial concept and intention for the portal? What tools or capabilities does the ICT Portal give to military and government users?

Ram Rao: The ICT Portal is a flagship capability we offer to our customers and mission partners as a part of our network solutions. The ICT Portal is a web-based NetOps set of tools providing end-to-end situational awareness in a consumable “single pane of glass” user interface. The consolidated network visibility provides our mission partners something they generally don’t have with COMSATCOM networks – a near real-time view into the network.

Even when COMSATCOM networks work in tandem with MILSATCOM networks, the ICT Portal gives users a view of their space segment, teleports, gateways, hubs, and terrestrial circuits – all the way to the individual user terminals.

The ICT Portal offers users five views into their network – each with multiple capabilities. These capabilities and functionality include an operational dashboard, terminal console, capacity management tool, and reporting tools. Within each capability view are a variety of sub-views, each with dozens or sometimes hundreds of data points to observe, filter, and use to improve the understanding of the SATCOM network.

“Our ICT Portal’s satellite coverage overlays allow users to see both EIRP and G/T maps of the satellite coverage in their network. The intent of this capability is to show users their satellite coverage within the deployment area.” – Ram Rao

SES Space & Defense’s intention has always been to support our mission partners with capabilities that deliver complete visibility and transparency into their networks and provide the situational awareness required to make timely, informed decisions.

GSR: Can you provide an example of how and why the ICT Portal could be useful to the military doing a mission or operation? What could it enable them to do?

Ram Rao: Our ICT Portal’s satellite coverage overlays allow users to see both EIRP and G/T maps of the satellite coverage in their network. The intent of this capability is to show users their satellite coverage within the deployment area.

This enables them to know – before they deploy – the minimum terminal specification required in that location. For example, if they are in the 50 dBW contour, they will need a minimum of a 1.2-meter antenna with a four-watt BUC. Users can also select multiple footprints to see where they have overlapping or redundant coverage. This capability immensely helps quick and efficient planning.

Another useful example is our VSAT Point Assist tool. While it is best practice to always do a site survey prior to deploying a VSAT terminal, we understand that it’s not always possible for DoD missions. The VSAT Point Assist tool provides field techs with a way to do site surveys virtually.

“We are continually working with our customers to improve and expand the capabilities of the ICT Portal.” – Ram Rao

The VSAT Point Assist tool allows users to input a location and choose a satellite. It then generates an estimated pointing angle and provides other necessary information, such as elevation and azimuth angles. Users can also drag the icon to different locations to ensure a clear path to the satellite.

The goal is to enable the military to conduct site surveys without a physical presence in theater and save significant time and costs while allowing them to better prepare for missions in advance.

Another useful example I’ll share is the ICT Portal Weather Overlay capability, which offers more than 150 different options of illustrating near real-time, historical, and forecasted weather information. This tool allows users to select as many of these events as they want and add them to the active list – such as active fire points, lightning strikes, tropical cyclones, and other live weather events. They can even see hurricanes and their paths.

These overlays are essential to improve situational awareness for our warfighters. It allows them to visualize how rain, snow, or ice may affect satellite connections and identify any alternatives they may have.

GSR: Is the ICT Portal available today? If not, when will it be available? Also, who will be able to utilize it?

Ram Rao: The ICT Portal is available today for SES Space & Defense network customers and is being utilized by some of our current government partners.

We are continually working with our customers to improve and expand the capabilities of the ICT Portal. We have an extensive road map to add new capabilities and features to the ICT Portal, including AI/ML capabilities, a complete cyber monitoring package, and fully customizable reporting packages. We also plan to enable select mission partners to control portions of the network as needed for critical mission success.

To learn more about the SES Space & Defense ICT Portal or request a demonstration, click HERE.

The post The SES Space & Defense ICT Portal – Meeting Military Transparency and Network Management Requirements for Multi-Domain Operations appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

“The DRS GES business is well-respected by its customers and within the satellite communications (SATCOM) provider services market, and we are very pleased with the agreement reached with SES,” said Bill Lynn, CEO of Leonardo DRS.  “While the DRS GES business has flourished, Leonardo DRS has shifted its portfolio focus, and selling it now makes the most business sense,” he said.

The DRS GES business is a leading provider of commercial satellite communications to the U.S. government and delivers world-class, mission-critical satellite communications and security solutions to customers anywhere in the world.

SES plans to organize the DRS GES business unit under SES Space and Defense (SES Space and Defense), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES.  For over 40 years, SES Space and Defense has supported the mission-essential operations of Combatant Command (COCOM), Military Services, and other U.S. government customers. SES Space and Defense delivers satellite communication solutions leveraging SES’s 70 satellites at geostationary and medium earth orbits and supporting ground infrastructure.

“SES Space and Defense is the only satellite operator with operational experience delivering multi-orbit, multi-band managed SATCOM services to the Department of Defense (DoD) and its warfighters,” said Pete Hoene, President and CEO of SES Space and Defense.  “With SES Space and Defense and DRS GES’ deep and trusted relationships with U.S. government agencies, we look forward to continuing to provide critical elements to meet the DoD’s connectivity requirements and deliver assured communications.”

Leonardo DRS regularly assesses its portfolio to ensure strong alignment with our customers’ needs and priorities.  As the company continues to focus on transforming to meet the DoD’s important priorities, this divestiture will allow the company to consider larger potential acquisitions that would strengthen its core capabilities and open new market opportunities.

“As we enter a new and exciting phase at Leonardo DRS, we are investing in our strengths to improve our core capabilities,” Lynn said.  “We are looking beyond incremental technology advances and moving towards a larger role in producing ground-breaking, market-disruptive technologies for our customer needs today, and well into the future,” he said.

“The combination of SES Space and Defense and DRS GES businesses unites the leader in multi-orbit satellite networking with unparalleled U.S. government satellite communications integration,” Hoene said.  “Both SES Space and Defense and DRS GES have a trusted reputation for delivering the best network solutions to meet unique and demanding U.S. government requirements.”

Featured image: An airman sets up a satellite in a simulated austere environment at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. (Photo by: Air Force Staff Sgt. Kristine Legate) The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

The post Leonardo DRS Announces Sale of Global SATCOM Business to SES appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

To provide reachback capabilities from forward-stationed units in remote locations to Europe, the solution includes a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network which has the performance to support emerging mission needs and is capable of handling smaller, sub-meter, antennas.

The VSAT network provides over 100 Mbps of throughput using multiple access methods, from time division multiple access (TDMA) that is shared sequentially and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) allowing simultaneous transmission, to various types of remote deployments and end-users. The satellite service provides expansive coverage of countries from Turkey to Pakistan, with reachback to Europe, enabling collaborative tools and enhanced situational awareness in a distributed way.

“We are proud to provide satellite communications support for this critical combatant command mission,” said President and CEO of SES Space and Defense, Brigadier General Pete Hoene, USAF (retired). “This new program allows personnel to reach out to the tactical edge for fast and dependable real-time data and represents a further extension of our current mission support to warfighters using both GEO and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite communications capabilities.”

For additional information about this new contract award, click HERE.

Featured image by Joshua Conti, U.S. Space Force.

The post SES Space and Defense Awarded $35.1 Million Contract to Support Major DoD Combatant Command appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Both the establishment of the new U.S. Space Force and that agency’s SATCOM vision are based on a universal understanding that the space domain is no longer an uncontested, benign environment for our military. Our adversaries today are increasingly capable of blocking, jamming or attacking satellites – making it possible for them to deny the technological and strategic advantage that space resources have delivered to the warfighter in the past.

The new NDAA, the new Space Force, and the new SATCOM vision are a reaction and answer to this new reality and new challenge in space.

Aside from the establishment of the Space Force, how does the new NDAA impact the way the military acquires satellite resources? What exactly is in that new SATCOM vision that will defend military satellite capabilities? How does the establishment of the Space Force change the way military interacts and engages with the commercial space and satellite industries?

Jon Bennett, the Vice President for Government Affairs, Marketing and Corporate Communications at SES Space and Defense, recently joined the Government Technology Insider Podcast to educate listeners about this and other topics. During his discussion with GTI Podcast host, Peter Jacobs, Jon talked about the provisions in the new NDAA, the revolutionary approach laid out in the Space Force SATCOM vision and the ways that the military is transforming how it approaches space and the acquisition of space resources.

Click the PLAY button below to listen to their conversation.

For additional information on the role that next generation commercial satellites can play in delivering essential government applications and communications, click HERE.

The post PODCAST – how the 2020 NDAA and Space Force revolutionize the military’s approach to space appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Another historical “first “ happened shortly after, when Vice President Mike Pence swore in Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, the former Commander of the Air Force Space Command, as the Space Force’s first-ever Chief of Space Operations. According to Military.com, he will be joined by the, “Roughly 16,000 active-duty and civilian personnel that make up Air Force Space Command.”

And, while many late-night television pundits have mocked the creation of the Space Force – the need for a Space Force is no laughing matter. In fact, it’s something that has been a common topic of conversation in the space and satellite industry for more than a decade.

Making the case for a Space Force
Since 2007, when China demonstrated its ability to successfully destroy a satellite in orbit with a kinetic attack, there has been one universal theme that we have heard reflected in the comments from industry and military speakers at every satellite and space conference and exposition – space is no longer a benign environment.

This sentiment was reflected in comments by Gen. Raymond, himself, who once said, “There’s great alignment in our nation today that space is a warfighting domain, just like air, land and sea… [we’re] at a strategic inflection point and that’s a point where we used to operate in a benign domain, but today we’re operating in a contested domain.”

The concept of space being a contested environment is not a welcome one for the military, which has long held a technological edge over its adversaries largely in thanks to U.S. assets in space. As Col. Steve Butow, the Space Portfolio Director at the Defense Innovation Unit, once said, “…we use technology as our offset. If we lose our technological offset, we have to fight a fair fight, and that’s not what we want to do. We want to have technological capabilities that keep us in a dominant position in all domains.” And many of those technological offsets are only available to the warfighter thanks to satellites.

Military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations rely on space resources. Military communications travel over satellites to get to American warfighters deployed in places with no terrestrial networks, or where terrestrial networks are untrusted or denied. Satellites are even essential for military position, navigation and timing (PNT).

Understanding the role satellite plays in successful military operations and that our satellites are vulnerable to attack and interference from adversaries makes the necessity for the Space Force clear. This new branch of the military will train a new generation of space professionals and acquire the space capabilities and technologies needed to compete in a new warfighting domain and maintain our technological offset.

This is clearly reflected in the Space Force’s mission statement:

The USSF is a military service that organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force. USSF responsibilities include developing military space professionals, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power, and organizing space forces to present to our Combatant Commands.

And there’s one part of that mission statement that has the space and satellite industry the most excited – the part about the Space Force being responsible for “acquiring military space systems.”

A single authority for space acquisition?
The Space Force just launched and it’s expected to be officially stood up over the course of the next 18 months. It’s still early, and it’s hard for any industry pundits on the outside looking in to say exactly how its creation will impact the way in which the military interacts with the satellite industry.

However, there is some optimism across the satellite industry that having a dedicated military branch with the responsibility of acquiring space systems and resources could help to ensure a better working relationship between the military and private industry.

Traditionally, the military has relied on purpose-build, custom satellite solutions that it finances, launches and manages itself to meet its needs for space capabilities. However, as we’ve discussed in numerous articles on this very publication, the overarching belief is that commercial satellites are the more innovative, less expensive and more resilient alternative for the military. As the CEO of commercial satellite provider, SES Space and Defense, Pete Hoene recently said, “Over the past ten years, what we’ve found is that commercial has taken over in terms of investment and innovation.”

However, despite the benefits, the military continues to invest in new communications satellites for its own constellation and continues to purchase commercial satellite capacity on the spot market – which often results in higher prices and less availability. The satellite industry has long called for the military to start thinking of commercial capability as part of an integrated satellite architecture that includes military satellites, but that has yet to truly come to pass.

The creation of the Space Force – a single entity tasked with ensuring our military’s continued dominance and technological advantage in the warfighting domain of space – could be the spark that finally ignites that change in attitudes and culture. And the individual at the top of that new military branch has illustrated a desire to work more closely with industry in the future.

“I think what we’ll see in the future is a more hybrid architecture which would provide us with more resiliency,“ Gen. Raymond told us during last year’s Air Force Association Air, Space and Cyber Conference. “We’re here to work with industry and I think that the relationships that we have and that were provided to us by the National Defense Authorization Act will provide us great advantage.”

Time will only tell what impact the Space Force will have on America’s tactical and technological advantage in space, and on the military’s relationship with the satellite industry. But it is further validation that space is an austere environment that will pose new challenges – and exciting new opportunities – for our military moving forward.

Feature image courtesy of U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Melody Howley.

The post Official Space Force launch reflects space’s status as warfighting domain appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Fast forward to today. As adults, we may not have gotten to see the forces of good vanquish the bad guys, but we do know why we need those emergency alerts and why it was probably for the best that they were tested frequently.

An untested alarm is always off. Testing that emergency broadcast system was an essential part of preparing for a real-life emergency – confirming for the government that the systems and tools that it would use to notify the public of a pending emergency would function when they needed it.

Today, the EBS has been replaced by the Emergency Alert System (EAS), but the function is still the same – notify the public of natural disasters and weather emergencies that may be coming their way. It also functions to enable the President of the United States to address all Americans within 10 minutes should the need arise.

This is an incredibly important service. A natural disaster or other emergency situation could be considerably more damaging and deadly if it strikes an unprepared population or location. By warning people of impending danger early, they can evacuate, prepare themselves or otherwise work towards mitigating the damage to themselves and their property. The EAS accomplishes this by notifying Americans about emergency situations through television, radio and messages to their cell phones.

But what about the people who don’t have access to those?

Country roads aren’t information superhighways
If you live in a major metropolitan area, having access to more television channels than you could ever watch, high speed broadband Internet access and radio stations of every conceivable format is something that you probably take for granted every single day. But for many Americans, they’re simply not available.

America is home to many geographically isolated territories, and many states in the union have large rural areas. In many cases, these rural areas and isolated territories simply don’t have access to the vast array of television channels, high speed Internet access and cellular networks that their fellow Americans take for granted every day.

You only have to look at the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) own terrestrial broadband reports and numbers to see how different urban and rural areas are when it comes to communications services. According to the FCC, “…over 26% of Americans in rural areas and 32% of Americans in tribal lands lack coverage from fixed terrestrial 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband, as compared to only 1.7% of Americans in urban areas.”

It’s a similar story if you look at the combination of what the FCC considers broadband and mobile LTE coverage: “…93.4% of the population, are covered by both 25 Mbps/3 Mbps fixed terrestrial service and mobile LTE with a minimum advertised speed of 5 Mbps/1 Mbps…In rural areas, 73.2% of Americans are covered by both services, as opposed to 98.3% of Americans in urban areas…”

While this certainly can impact the quality of life, connectivity and communication options available to these individuals, it can also have a much more significant and dire consequence – it can keep them from receiving the emergency notifications that many of their fellow Americans can receive via two or three different sources.

If you think this is a problem that only impacts a few states, you’d be sorely mistaken. Simply try to get a radio signal, a cable package or high-speed broadband Internet in a rural valley on the coasts and you, too, could be left disconnected. But, what can they do about it?

A case study in connectivity from Alaska
When it comes to geographically isolated, rural areas in America, few places can hold a candle to the country’s largest – and arguably most naturally beautiful – state. Of Alaska’s 737,438 people, approximately 239,319 live in rural areas.

With the state being geographically isolated form the contiguous United States, featuring harsh climates and having a large population living in rural areas, it should come as no surprise that basic radio, television and Internet access can be difficult there. But that hasn’t kept Alaska from finding a unique way to ensure that everyone can still be notified in emergency situations.

Utilizing satellite connectivity and omnidirectional antennas, the State of Alaska delivers public access television and other services directly to their citizens. This isn’t just for entertainment, however. When emergency situations happen, the news or entertainment content that the station is currently displaying is preempted by emergency alerts.

The combination of satellite connectivity and omnidirectional antennas are key to this program’s success. The satellite service enables the transmission of a signal to practically anywhere on Earth – including into the most remote and rural places on the globe.

Alaska is considered the 47^th most connected state in the United States by highspeedinternet.com. Satellite is the best and most efficient way to deliver connectivity to a place where a percentage of the population has little access to the same communications services that are available in more urban areas across the country. But this isn’t just about delivering communications services to people in rural areas, it’s about giving them fair warning and information about emergency situations and natural disasters. Which means that satellite is effectively helping to keep Alaskans in rural parts of the state safe.

And if it can work in Alaska, a state with 30,000 brown bears (that’s more than one bear for every eight humans that live in rural Alaska), it can work in other rural areas across the country. If Alaska Public Broadcasting is evidence of anything, it’s that every American deserves a warning when disaster could strike, and that there’s no reason why any American can’t get one.

The post Emergency alerts via satellite the only solution for disconnected rural areas appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

However, the ability to deliver fiber-like network speeds, connectivity and bandwidth is somewhat limited by geography. Boats at sea, planes in the air and troops on the ground in remote or hostile regions simply don’t have the ability to be connected to the rest of the world by a fiber optic cable.

COMSATCOM has long been the solution for enabling connectivity and communications in these regions. But latency and other factors have restricted the types of capabilities that traditional COMSATCOM could enable.
But all of that is changing. A new generation of satellites – called Medium Earth Orbit (or MEO) satellites – is now available. These new satellites orbit in closer proximity to the Earth and deliver much higher throughputs with far less latency than traditional geostationary (or GEO) satellites.

One of the most well-known constellations of MEO satellites belongs to O3b, a satellite services provider with 40 live customers and 12 MEO satellites currently in orbit – with eight more on order.

To get a better idea of what these satellites can do, and how they can be used for some exciting and innovative use cases within the government, we sat down with the CEO of O3b, Steve Collar. During our discussion, we talked about the fundamental difference between MEO and GEO, the benefits MEO satellites deliver and some of the amazing ways the bandwidth from MEO satellites can be utilized in military applications – including for distance learning and telemedicine implementations.

Here is what Steve had to say:

For additional information on O3b and the benefits of MEO satellite constellations, download the following resources:

• White Paper: O3b “Fiber Like” Satellite Communications for U.S. Government Applications 

• GEO & MEO: Proven. Efficient. Scalable. 

• Video: Fiber In The Sky

The post PODCAST – O3b CEO Discusses Delivering Fiber-like Bandwidth Anywhere appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Ultimately, we concluded that HTS can deliver increased capacity and better results at lower prices for the government and military.

To take a deeper look at the emergence of HTS, we sat down with satellite veteran, Jean-Pierre Choffray, the Vice President of System Architecture at SES. Jean-Pierre was integral in the design and planning phases of the SES-12 satellite – the first HTS in the SES fleet.

Here is what Jean-Pierre had to say:

GovSat Report: SES-12 will be a replacement for NSS-6, but more importantly it is SES’s first High Throughput Satellite (HTS). Can you tell us more about the technical innovations and how they came about?

Mr. Choffray: It was a process essentially driven by the questions: what capabilities can the new satellite have? How can it satisfy emerging and future business demands? How can we best optimize its design?

We had been monitoring the market demands and technology landscape for several years, so our decisions zeroed in on the high-value opportunities across these domains.

For instance, from 95°E- where NSS-6 and SES-8 are co-located – we are currently serving the direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting needs of around 20 million households in India and Indochina. That sounds like a lot, but we wanted to reach out to the vast areas that remain unserved or underserved, hence the wide-beam transponders.

At the same time, with connectivity demands from VSAT, enterprise, mobility, and government applications forming a fast-growing market, we planned for Ku- and Ka-band spot beams capable of delivering over 14 GHz HTS capacity.

With SES-12 having a double mission comprising both traditional wide-beam coverage and high-powered Ku-band multi-spot beam payload, we are looking at a hybrid satellite that gives us immense flexibility. This is enhanced even further with its digital processing ability, which allows us to optimize the allocation of capacity to key growth areas.

GovSat Report: What has it been like to work on the SES-12?

Mr. Choffray: For over 18 months, I worked closely with at least 50 people from across multiple teams, including systems engineering, spectrum management, and business development.

The team went all out to consolidate interdisciplinary insights, matching the technical realities and trends with technology and business demands. This makes for a richer and more sophisticated blueprint for design. We needed such a highly integrated collaborative effort to decide on the payload we needed, could, and should have.

GovSat Report: What technological innovations in SES-12 are you most excited by?

Mr. Choffray: For a long time, there was a question mark on whether or not a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP) would be on-board SES-12. This cutting-edge technology would enable us to offer extreme flexibility in terms of connectivity and thus to adapt to customers’ evolving requirements.

When we first started on the satellite design, the DTP was only an option that we kept open. When, after mapping out our technical and sales roadmaps, the decision was made to embark the DTP on-board, it was a very intense moment of satisfaction for the team – having such innovative technology on-board was very exciting!

On the whole, it was all very, very interesting, and ultimately rewarding to work on this from A to Z. I expect it to be much the same for SES-14 and 15, when we’ll need to continually challenge ourselves in building for the future.

For additional information on SES’s emerging, cutting-edge HTS constellation, click on the resources below:

• Find out the coverage areas for the SES HTS GEO fleet: SES-14, SES-15and SES-16
• Why Big Beams are a Big Deal to the Military – The GovSat Report
• How HTS investment today could spell serious savings for the military tomorrow – The GovSat Report
• Check out coverage of the HTS MEO constellation
• Find out the next SES launch date

The post A Look Inside the Design and Launch of a New High Throughput Satellite appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

However, despite the benefits of HTS, the military is not yet in a position to take advantage of this advanced satellite technology. Let’s analyze why.

As we discussed previously, HTS satellites don’t use large, single beams that cover significant geographic areas. Instead, they use multiple spot beams that are smaller in coverage area and overlap slightly with each other to form a continuous coverage area.  Since the beams overlap, each beam needs to use a different frequency or polarization to prevent interfering with the adjacent beams.

Since ISR platforms, manned or unmanned, cover great distances in a single mission, they travel through several HTS beams. As ISR platforms move from beam to beam, they must change frequencies or polarization. This creates a challenge for today’s UAVs as they are not outfitted with modern SATCOM equipment that enables them to do this.

Many of the UAVs that make up the military’s current fleet were procured a decade or more ago with SATCOM equipment optimized for wide area coverage beams.  At the time, there was no need to change SATCOM frequency or polarization in flight.  As a result, today’s UAVs simply are not capable of switching from spot beam to spot beam and cannot take advantage of the efficient and resilient capabilities of HTS.

Although it’s not a simple or inexpensive fix, upgrades can be made to existing UAV fleets so that they can work with HTS. To accomplish this, the modems aboard UAVs and the associated ground systems can be upgraded to today’s advanced frequency agile terminals.

Unfortunately, the military has yet to pull the trigger on upgrading their UAV fleet to embrace this cost saving, higher efficiency satellite technology.  This delay limits their ability to take advantage of the improved performance and higher value HTS capabilities offer.

With high throughput satellites coming online, the increasing need for high-performance UAVs, and the challenged government fiscal environment, now is the time for the military to take the first steps towards embracing HTS for UAV missions. And, thankfully, it’s a process that can be done incrementally over time.

High throughput satellites that are coming online today from COMSATCOM operators are hybrid satellites that offer both traditional GEO wide-area coverage and HTS spot beams. This ensures that traditional GEO satellite connectivity will be available for UAV missions as the upgrade process occurs, while providing flexibility to the military moving forward.

High throughput satellites are the future for much of the military’s communications needs and are especially well suited for UAV missions today and into the future. The time is now for the military to start taking the steps necessary to embrace this technology by upgrading their UAV fleet and ensuring that the proper ground and airborne technologies are in place for the transition to HTS. The investment in doing so will lead to significant efficiencies and cost savings in the end.

For additional details on the differences between traditional GEO satellites and HTS, and to learn more about the use cases for HTS in the federal government, download the HTS briefing entitled, “High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications,” by clicking HERE.

Also, click the links below for additional HTS information and resources:

• Discover the coverage areas for HTS GEO: SES-14, SES-15and SES-16
• Why Big Beams are a Big Deal to the Military – The GovSat Report
• How HTS investment today could spell serious savings for the military tomorrow – The GovSat Report
• Three New Birds for SES – Press Release
• What went into the design of SES first HTS satellite? – Q&A

The post Part Two: The Switch to High Throughput Satellites – How an Investment Now Can Yield Serious Savings Later appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The United States military owns thousands of UAVs. This includes those manufactured by General Atomics – such as the Predator, Grey Eagle, and Reaper.

One thing that all of these UAVs have in common is the ability to conduct tactical military operations in theater without exposing American military personnel to danger. Another thing that they have in common is a need to be connected to a remote pilot – something that’s accomplished in many instances through commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM).

Since Wi-Fi or line-of-sight communications aren’t available or simply won’t work for piloting and transmitting the data from UAVs (for obvious reasons), satellite is the best and most effective option. As sensor performance improves and customer requirements increase, transmission rates for UAV data is growing rapidly, driving up the amount of satellite bandwidth used as well as the cost.

However, with a new generation of satellites being launched, the military could be poised to more effectively meet the growing data transmission requirements of the UAVs at even a lower cost than today.

The next generation of satellites – known as High Throughput Satellites (HTS) – use tens to hundreds of small spot beams instead of the one large coverage beam of traditional geosynchronous (GEO) satellites. While these HTS beams are smaller in coverage area, they are grouped together to cover large areas, and each smaller beam delivers significant benefits over traditional GEO satellites.

First, this new technology enables frequency reuse and thus higher capacity for the satellite. This is a more efficient use of spectrum and increases the number of users per satellite, reducing the cost per bit of for the COMSATCOM operator and effectively slashing the cost to enable the communications between a UAV and its operator.

Cost efficiency is essential for these missions for a few reasons. First, the federal government is looking to save money whenever and wherever it can due to shrinking budgets. This savings can be reinvested into the UAV programs and missions to effectively deliver increased performance without an increase in cost. This means that for the same budget, the military can receive higher quality video and images and more accurate intelligence, which can enable better, more informed decisions.

Then there’s the issue with security. As many of the speakers at this year’s SatCon Conference shared – including Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond – space is no longer an uncontested environment. There are many threats to satellites and to satellite communications that can drastically impact the military’s ability to conduct operations and even threaten UAV missions.

Luckily, HTS satellites can also help in this area.

HTS satellites, by their nature, are more resilient. Instead of there being one single satellite beam to deny through jamming, there are many separate beams that need to be jammed. Also, jamming needs to be done from within a beam’s coverage area, which is only a few hundred kilometers wide for an HTS satellite.

Jamming a beam is much easier to accomplish when the coverage area includes 10 to 20 countries instead of a half of a country. With HTS satellites, being in the coverage area effectively means that bad actors looking to jam the communication will be geographically close to military forces.

Another advanced feature of many HTS satellites is a digital signal processor that replaces the waveguides and RF switches of older satellite design.  This processor is often called a Channelizer or a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP). This technology enables HTS satellites to quickly and effectively reconfigure the satellite to meet customer demands,  to nullify jamming signals through nulling the interfering signal, or to quickly relocate the operational users to other frequencies.

With their ability to operate more effectively, efficiently and securely, HTS satellites are clearly the future for UAV operations. Unfortunately, current UAVs are not designed to take advantage of the features of HTS satellites. However, the enabling technology is advancing rapidly and it won’t be long before the military adopts this new capability.  .

In my next article on the GovSat Report, I’ll look at the different requirements necessary for operating UAVs on HTS satellites, and what the military needs to do to make the switch.

For additional details on the differences between traditional GEO satellites and HTS, and to learn more about the use cases for HTS in the federal government, download the HTS briefing entitled, “High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications,” by clicking HERE.

Also, click the links below for additional HTS information and resources:

• Discover the coverage areas for HTS GEO: SES-14, SES-15and SES-16
• Why Big Beams are a Big Deal to the Military – The GovSat Report
• How HTS investment today could spell serious savings for the military tomorrow – The GovSat Report
• Three New Birds for SES – Press Release
• What went into the design of SES first HTS satellite? – Q&A

The post Part One: Empowering Cheaper, Better UAV Missions With High Throughput Satellites appeared first on SES Space and Defense.