One topic of discussion that received a considerable amount of buzz throughout the conference was the federal government and military’s need for connectivity at the North and South Poles.

At first glance, it may seem that having SATCOM capabilities at the Poles is unnecessary. But my conversations with government and military leaders at Space Symposium showed that there is – indeed – an undeniable need for COMSATCOM solutions and capabilities at the Poles.

Research and national defense
Even though there are very few people who live and work at the North and South Poles, the mission sets that present U.S. government and military personnel are carrying out in these areas are absolutely critical to not only national security, but to scientific research and development as well.

If we were to take a trip down to the remote South Pole, we would find scientists and researchers from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) making groundbreaking discoveries in the areas of astronomy, astrophysics, seismology, climate change, among many others.

Without reliable connectivity and communications capabilities, government researchers are unable to uplink the critical data back to those that will analyze and learn from it in the continental U.S. As a result, major scientific progress could be halted and left unsupported during a time when rising sea levels and record-breaking natural disasters are threatening American lives every day. It is critical that the federal government be able to provide scientists with the SATCOM capabilities they require to continue producing world-saving research.

And much like in the South Pole, the remote North Pole also supports scientific, government research that requires SATCOM solutions that can power the massive data exchanges coming to and from the area. But, unlike the South Pole, there are additional military requirements for SATCOM services at the North Pole.

Two of our largest, near-peer adversaries are located in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility (AOR). As global climate change continues to open passages on additional travel routes through the North Pole region, the need to protect newly-formed commercial trade routes from those adversaries increases. There is also an increased need to defend the U.S. and its northern allies from threats that leverage these new northern passages.

The threats U.S. adversaries pose to national security is always evolving. To secure U.S. borders from potential, incoming threats the government and military must leverage digital transformation at the North Pole, through the proliferation of military, marine, and aerospace sensors that can detect security threats that may pose risks to the homeland.

With traditional, terrestrial networks unavailable, SATCOM is necessary to get sensor data from these remote locations back to military and civilian support organizations and their decision-makers. By leveraging SATCOM to connect a new generation of advanced Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices, our military and civilian organizations can gain better situational awareness at the Poles, understand changing weather patterns, and be better prepared to defend our nation from pacing threats.

But what commercial satellite capabilities are available in the Poles?

Why the Poles are HOT for satellite providers
There are many rural, remote, and geographically isolated places in our country that are without access to terrestrial networks because there simply isn’t a business case for telecoms or other internet service providers (ISP) to invest in the infrastructure. And it’s easy to understand why. Since the number of residents that would pay for the service is limited, these companies simply wouldn’t make their investment back, let alone make a meaningful return on that investment.

Something similar has long hampered the launch of satellite constellations that provide service to the North and South Poles. In places where penguins and polar bears outnumber people, there is very little need for satellite services, and very little revenue to be generated from launching multiple satellites to deliver coverage to these areas.

But that is beginning to change rapidly. Increased demand from government and military users in these remote areas is driving a growing need for satellite services. In partnerships with global governments, there could now be a reasonable business case for commercial satellite service providers to expand coverage to the poles. And this is one of the reasons why so many conversations at Space Symposium focused on this topic – renewed and increased interest in the Poles from both the government and its industry partners.

For example, as a satellite operator with the only HTS satellite constellation in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), SES Space and Defense, strategically designed second generation MEO constellation, O3b mPOWER with capabilities to operate in inclined planes and in the future extend MEO to the poles. As scientific expeditions and military operations continue to expand at the Poles, the future capabilities that MEO will provide will be paramount to mission success.

This was a sentiment shared by Steve Collar, the CEO of SES, during his recent keynote address at the SATELLITE 2023 Conference. “From an SES standpoint, we designed O3b mPOWER to be capable to also operate in inclined planes. That would be the next step for us…That means polar capability and polar coverage that allows us to add more capabilities,” Collar said. “We won’t be limited in the future to just communications. We can add more services and more missions to this incredibly strategic orbit.”

Learn how SES Space and Defense is providing satellite services to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, HERE.

Listen to SES Space and Defense’s Vice President of Government Relations, Jon Bennett, discuss why commercial connectivity is critical for communications at the Arctic Circle, HERE.

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Why? Because it’s becoming abundantly clear that this is an extraordinary point in time for the satellite and space industries.

Over the past decade, we’ve seen significant changes in the way that the federal government interacts with and acquires services from their satellite partners. Now, halfway through 2019, it’s clear that this year will forever be remembered as the start of the satellite renaissance.

What do I mean by satellite renaissance? We’re entering a period of time where innovation, new technologies and a booming demand for bandwidth are aligning to create an environment where satellite once again becomes one of the hottest topics of discussion and areas of investment in the federal government.

But to truly understand the change that we’re experiencing, we first have to reflect back on where we came from.

A rocky relationship
For the better part of a decade, executives at satellite companies have been working to improve their relationship with the federal government and military. Although capable of playing an enormous role in meeting the wideband satellite and communications requirements of the government and Department of Defense (DoD), commercial satellite companies were often treated less like mission-critical partners, and more like any other vendor selling a commodity.

A big part of this came from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which previously held acquisition authority for commercial satellite services and often pushed for lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA) satellite capacity to be purchased on the spot market.

However, the provisions in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) promised to change much of that.

The FY 2018 NDAA shifted the acquisition authority for satellite services from DISA to the Commander of Air Force Space Command, giving them the authority to, “…procure commercial satellite communications for the Department of Defense.” As a result, Air Force Space Command assumed responsibility and authority for the procurement of COMSATCOM on December 12, 2018.

During this transition, Air Force Space Command has worked to ensure that the satellite industry has been heavily involved in shaping the future of satellite networks and lay the groundwork for future wideband satellite acquisition processes that make sense for both government and industry.

The subsequent FY 2019 NDAA and Defense Appropriations bill contained several additional provisions and initiatives that can benefit both the military and commercial satellite industry. Focused on the future wideband architecture and repeated concerns over the inflexibility of the current architecture for military satellite communications, appropriators directed the service secretaries to develop an integrated wideband and narrowband architecture and acquisition strategy.

Congressional leaders also directed that the architecture and acquisition strategy should include, “…government and commercial space systems,” and, “…be based on flexible operations, open standards, and commonality that has communications path diversity.”

In addition, House appropriators directed all future COMSATCOM integration funding into a newly created program element to increase oversight, while authorizing $49.5M in funding specifically for COMSATCOM efforts – a first-ever budget line item for the commercial satellite industry.

These positive steps towards improved relations between the military and commercial satellite industry have the potential to deliver incredible benefits to the DoD. This potential is only augmented by the capabilities of today’s more advanced satellites, and the increasingly large bandwidth demands of network-centric operations.

A recent renaissance in space
Over the past decade, we’ve seen the rise of multiple potentially disruptive technologies that are capable of fundamentally changing the way the federal government and military operate.

Today’s federal agencies and military branches are scrambling to implement advanced data analytics and Artificial Intelligence to help them gain actionable insights from their data. They’re integrating an enormous ecosystem of sensors into their military platforms and infrastructure. They’re rolling mobile devices out to warfighters, and they’re increasingly looking to generate real-time 4D video ISR data from UAVs to inform their mission planning.

These are just a handful of the new technologies and use cases that are spearheading the demand for a “digital transformation” within the government and military. But these technologies also have something else in common – they’re all network-enabled solutions that are powered by, and require, high-bandwidth network connectivity.

Luckily for the government, this increased bandwidth requirement comes at an exciting time for the satellite industry. A new generation of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) are being built and launched into Geostationary Orbit (GEO), as well as other orbits closer to Earth. When orbiting the Earth in the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), these satellites are capable of delivering immense bandwidth and capacity with drastically reduced latency. This means that the same experience that government users get from terrestrial fiber networks is now available practically anywhere on Earth via satellite.

These solutions are only available to the military through commercial partners. That’s because the rapid innovation in the commercial space industry brings satellite support to the military’s doorstep quicker and more cost effectively than the traditional method of building and launching purpose-built government satellites.

Last year was a great year for the commercial satellite industry and their improving relationships with the federal government. But, thanks to the intersection of multiple government and industry trends, 2019 promises to be even more exciting.

The government’s demand for bandwidth to all corners of the globe is enormous and growing every day. The commercial satellite industry has been innovating relentlessly to develop new, higher bandwidth, lower latency solutions to meet increasing capacity requirements. And the relationship between government organizations and their satellite industry partners is improving immensely. The stage is set for a satellite renaissance. In fact, it may already be upon us.

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Partnerships between agencies, allies and, importantly, with the industry are a key element of the emerging U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) strategy to preserve access to critical space capabilities in the face of growing threats posed by potential U.S. adversaries, senior national security leaders said.

“In a contested space environment, partnerships strengthen our advantage and complicate potential adversary decision-making,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command, which delivers space capabilities to the warfighters. He noted, for example, the Air Force’s strong relationship with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which buys and operates the nation’s reconnaissance satellites.

“We’ve also got several partnership opportunities we’re working with the commercial world,” Raymond said. “Those range from launch to re-entry and everything in between.”

Bookended by launch and re-entry are commercial satellite-delivered services including imagery and communications, upon which the military and intelligence community have come to depend.

DoD Looks to Determine Next-Generation Architecture
“In the old days, the processing power of the [communications] throughput that was available out there in industry was not what we needed—we had to develop our own,” NRO Director Betty Sapp said in a Space Symposium keynote address. “Those days are long gone—commercial has more than what we need.”

The Defense Department in recent years has spent $1 billion or more on commercial satellite capacity, according to space industry officials. Commercial satellites continue to carry a significant portion of U.S. military communications traffic, and demand is expected to increase in the coming years.

The Air Force, an operator of the Wideband Global Satcom system that the service characterizes as the backbone of its satellite communications fleet, is in the midst of an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) to determine the content of its next-generation architecture. A key question is what is the best mix of mix of government and commercially owned assets to help the DoD do its job in the years ahead.

DoD Underserved by Terrestrial Links
The DoD could realize an exponential leap in communications capability by pulling together multiple commercial and military constellations into a single network where users are able to move seamlessly between constellations.  Gen John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, has stated that, “SATCOM systems are key to our continued strategic posture in space…”

Among those systems, SES’ O3b MEO fleet is unique in that it operates in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at about 8,000 kilometers in altitude, whereas the others are geostationary systems located 36,000 kilometers above the equator. The lower altitude of the O3b’s MEO satellites allow them to relay signals with significantly less lag time, or latency, than geostationary systems. U.S. military officials have touted the benefits of low-latency systems as forces increasingly rely on satellites to support so-called enterprise applications that often are intolerant of signal delays.

SES’ O3b MEO constellation currently consists of 16 satellites, with four more slated to launch next year and seven next-generation O3b mPower spacecraft slated to begin launching in 2021.

“SES continues to enhance our O3b MEO constellation to provide fiber-like services to multiple U.S. government customers at its 17 sites worldwide,” said Peter Hoene, President and Chief Executive Officer of Reston, Va.-based SES Space and Defense, that exclusively serves US government customers. “In combination with SES’ geostationary satellites, O3b MEO provides connectivity that is flexible, reliable and resilient.”

Air Force Devoted to Industry Partnerships
Air Force Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, commander of the service’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), which oversees the acquisition of most U.S. military space systems, said a just-announced SMC reorganization will help ensure that commercial capabilities are appropriately integrated into the overall military space architecture. As part of the reorganization, unveiled by Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson in a keynote speech here April 17, the service is creating a “chief architect” position to consider the space enterprise as a whole, rather than its individual component parts.

“Our portfolio architect that Secretary Wilson also mentioned will have an office completely devoted to partnerships to ensure that we keep those connections and put together the best space systems that we possibly can,” Thompson told reporters at a Symposium press conference April 19.

The SMC reorganization comes amid continued debate over whether the Air Force is properly structured to address its current and future challenges in space.

In a speech to a government affairs breakfast at the Symposium co-sponsored by the Space Foundation and SES Space and Defense, Doug Loverro, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, said that during the 1960s and 1970s, the service did a great job of cultivating internal expertise on the subject. This was accomplished not through a formal structure but by allowing Air Force officers to build on their space knowledge as they moved to different and progressively higher positions, both within the service and at other agencies like the NRO and NASA.

That wholistic space cadre development was lost via what Loverro called “a long and disconnected series of unfortunate events,” in which the Air Force unwittingly created bureaucratic barriers between space operations and acquisition personnel and hindered the career advancement of space professionals. While he stopped short of advocating a quasi-independent Space Corps, as some stakeholders have advocated, he said the space enterprise might benefit through formal structures designed to enhance the development of career space professionals.

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It was this demand for more bandwidth and higher speeds that made the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation of COMSATCOM provider, O3b, one of the hottest topics of discussion at both SATELLITE 2015 and this year’s Space Symposium.

O3b’s MEO satellite constellation has the ability to deliver fiber-like throughputs and – thanks to its closer proximity to Earth – vastly improved latency, making O3b extremely attractive to COMSATCOM customers from both the public and private sectors.

We recently had an opportunity to record a podcast with two titans of the commercial satellite communications industry – SES Space and Defense CEO, Pete Hoene, and O3b CEO, Steve Collar. During our discussion, we talked about the benefits of MEO satellites, the different use cases for O3b in the federal government and the relationship between the two companies.

Here is what Pete and Steve had to say:

For additional information about MEO satellites and how they can help reduce latency and deliver fiber-like connectivity to the edge, download the whitepaper, “Fiber-Like Satellite Communications for U.S. Government Applications,” by clicking HERE.

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The critical nature of COMSATCOM to the military was reinforced at both of this year’s largest satellite industry conferences – SATELLITE 2015 and the Space Symposium – where attendees discussed the importance of COMSATCOM for increasing the mobility and agility of the military while helping to defend satellite constellations from attack.

COMSATCOM has become increasingly important for the federal government today, and the reliance on service providers will only increase as the government continues to move towards more cost efficient operations. This means that more government agencies and acquisition professionals will be tasked at identifying the correct COMSATCOM provider for their organizational needs.

Unfortunately, the selection of a COMSATCOM partner often requires looking beyond the ability to meet the mission requirements. Here are some of the things federal agencies should be looking for in a partner:

Commitment to performance above revenue – the federal government prizes performance and accomplishing a mission for the betterment of the country and its people over individual profit – their COMSATCOM provider should function similarly. Short-term and profit-focused thinking by a company, intended to enhance its bottom-line, at the expense of performance, should be unacceptable from a government COMSATCOM partner.

A government agency’s COMSATCOM partners need to focus less on profit and more on performance and problem solving by accepting no easy or simple rationale for complex problems, anticipating client needs and proactively improving functionality at all levels, even if these actions and activities cut into the bottom-line.

Reliability and staying power – when a federal government agency awards a five or ten year contract to a COMSATCOM provider they should feel assured that their partner will go the life of that contract without being sold or traded, and that the management team that was dedicated to the sale and delivery of service will be the same at the beginning and end of a project.

A history of upright business practices – with taxpayer dollars on the line and government budgets already stretched thin, federal agencies need to ensure that their partners are practicing responsible accounting practices and have never been accused of, held liable for, or settled allegations of fraudulently charging the government.

Today, COMSATCOM services are essential for both civilian agencies and branches of the military. Choosing a COMSATCOM provider simply for their ability to provide a marginally-compliant, lowest-price technically acceptable proposal puts the government in a high risk situation. When choosing COMSATCOM providers, it’s essential that Government agencies select a partner that can meet mission objections, are stable, will be dedicated to identifying answers to the most complex questions and have a long track record of operating ethically.

In upcoming posts on the GovSat Report, we will provide ideas that Government end-users and acquisition professionals can adopt to ensure that their COMSATCOM services are provided by high-reliable corporations, reduce areas of risk that can generate significant mission problems and cost overruns, and incentivize exceptional performance over the long-term.

To learn more about SES Space and Defense and the services it provides to the federal government, click HERE.

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The Space Symposium has continued to see an increase in the number of federal government attendees, post the sequester activities of the U.S. Government. The show has also seen a continued increase in the number of international government attendees. This year was certainly not an exception, as a new record was set for attendance.

During our time at this year’s conference, we had the opportunity to sit down with decision makers from the U.S. military and representatives from U.S. agencies and foreign governments to discuss their pain points, challenges and satellite needs. Although there were many trends and topics that were discussed, one common theme across the conference – and our many conversations – was a need to be prepared for opposition from our adversaries to access to space and space capabilities.

Our military’s reliance on satellites at the tip of the spear is well known by our adversaries. Unfortunately, an increasingly large number of nation states have the ability to negatively impact these essential satellites.

A common discussion at the conference centered around the fact that – today – even small nation states can launch cyberattacks against satellites or jam satellites to negatively impact our military’s ability to operate and collaborate on the ground. What’s worse, our adversaries have also repeatedly demonstrated their ability to impact military satellite communications through direct and hostile ballistic attacks on the satellites, themselves.

To help protect communications during wartime, the U.S. military has a constellation of hardened Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) and MILSTAR satellites that offer anti-jam and low-probability-of-intercept capabilities and are capable of withstanding most attacks. These satellites are extremely expensive and only used for senior level military decision makers in critical situations. The Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) network – which will be comprised of ten total satellites – is used to provide the military’s wideband satellite communications needs.

Unfortunately, this creates challenges when dealing with adversaries in space. If an adversary was looking to attack or otherwise negatively influence a satellite, it’s easy to target one of ten known WGS satellites. Also, you can confidently attack that satellite and only negatively impact your enemy.

This is where commercial SATCOM can help.

Working with commercial SATCOM providers, military communications can be split amongst a larger constellation of satellites, making it much harder to identify which satellite to attack. The probability that an attack impacts the correct satellite is – by nature – much lower. Also, since commercial SATCOM providers utilize their satellites for multiple, different customers, any attack to a satellite could have significant multinational impact.

For example, an attack to a commercial SATCOM provider’s satellite could impact your enemy’s military communications – or it could effectively destroy all Internet connectivity and satellite television access for citizens of one of your allies. After all, nothing damages relations between allied nations than accidentally causing an entire country to miss a World Cup Football match.

Ultimately, utilizing commercial SATCOM to supplement the military’s existing satellite network can create a more resilient architecture that offers greater diversity and a multinational satellite capability.

However, that wasn’t the only solution that military leaders and commercial SATCOM providers were discussing at this year’s conference. Another hot topic was the emergence of the protected tactical wave form.

New protected tactical wave form technologies are more difficult to both jam and intercept, making them more secure than standard unprocessed and unprotected satellites. Although not as secure, they’re cheaper than the military’s AEHF satellites, making them more accessible for providing and protecting the signal for the warfighter down to the individual soldier, instead of being limited to Battalion levels and higher. The terminals for the protected tactical wave form are also usable across both military and commercial SATCOM, which enables the military to communicate across a wider ecosystem of satellites.

The new protected tactical wave form technologies are still in development, but exciting advancements are being made. And – if our discussions at the Space Symposium are any indication – their eventual arrival is greatly anticipated by the military and commercial SATCOM providers, alike.

This year’s Space Symposium was the largest ever – and for good reason. Satellite communications are increasingly essential for military operational effectiveness. And with that increased reliance on satellite communications comes a new focus on impacting and disrupting satellites by our adversaries. However, with new technologies and an increasing utilization of commercial SATCOM, the military can be sure that their mission-critical communications remain safe and secure.

Additional Resources:

• AFSPC Commander Discusses Priorities at Space Symposium
• Increased space defense a key talking point at Space Symposium
• Al-Jazeera World Cup broadcasts were jammed from Jordan

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