When you consider the mission-critical services that military satellites provide – and the essential capabilities and communications they deliver to – it becomes abundantly clear why this topic dominates so many military space discussions.

Compromising or neutralizing a military satellite now means that Americans have to go without essential communications connectivity, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) data and mission-critical network applications and tools. These type of mission degradations would have immediate and negative impacts on lethality, and on the survivability of American troops.

Defending a Contested Space Domain

It comes as no surprise that defending satellites was once again the hot topic of discussion during a Defense One-organized, “Cocktails and Conversations,” event that was held just steps away from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center during one of the evenings of SATELLITE 2018 – one of the year’s largest satellite-focused conferences.

This event included a number of military satellite decision makers and thought leaders, each with incredible depth of experience and knowledge into the military’s satellite challenges and requirements. Present on the panel were:

• Douglas Loverro: President of Loverro Consulting, LLC and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy
• Colonel George R. Nagy: Chief of the Space Support to Operations Division at the Pentagon
• Deanna Ryals: Chief of the International Programs Division within The MilSatCom Systems Directorate at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command
• Dr. Brian Weeden: Director of Program Planning at the Secure World Foundation

The conversation began with basic overviews about DoD satellite strategy and the ongoing wideband analysis of alternatives (AOA) before shifting to the topic of resiliency. As it turns out, resiliency and mission assurance aren’t new issues, which was well illustrated by this anecdote from Dr. Weeden, “I was looking at some documents from the end of the Ford Administration, they were worried about threats to U.S. space systems from a growing adversary counter-space problem and the fact that their systems were not designed to be able to defend themselves or be survivable in the face of an attack.”

That administration ended more than 40 years ago.

No simple solution for satellite resiliency

Although this is clearly an old challenge, there has yet to be a perfect solution implemented across the DoD – most likely because there is no one, simple solution. As Mr. Loverro elaborated, “You can’t just build a bunch of satellites and say you’re resilient. You can’t just go ahead and put armor on your satellite and say you’re resilient. You can’t just go ahead and say just use commercial, or do responsive launch and say you’re resilient.” Instead, he challenged the military to, “…look at your mission, look at your architecture and the tools available and think about what makes it difficult – if not impossible – for someone to take that apart.”

Ultimately, multiple panel participants agreed that it’s going to be a combination of disparate solutions – a “basket of solutions” as Mr.

Weeden referred to it – that can be combined to better protect military satellite infrastructures and architectures. That “basket of solutions” was further defined by Mr. Loverro when he said, “It’s going to be a combination of proliferation, disaggregation, diversity, distribution, protection, proliferation and deception. Those factors can combine for any space capability that we know about to make them resilient, and – quite frankly – it doesn’t cost a lot of money if you combine them correctly.”

Although the panel all agreed that resiliency in satellite networks was of paramount importance for the DoD, they did disagree when it came to identifying exactly which threat was the largest one facing military satellites. Two of the panelists were concerned about cyber attacks and cyber threats impacting military satellites. Mr. Loverro was more concerned about a somewhat less sophisticated, albeit equally effective, threat to satellites – jamming.

According to Mr. Loverro, “Cyber attack against a variety of communications networks is a difficult challenge. But the far simpler thing that Russia can do. That North Korea can do. That Iran can do. That Botswana can do. That some guy in the middle of a field with a TV truck can do…is jamming. Jamming is very hard to protect against, unless you have the right equipment.”

And that’s an area where commercial satellite can help.

Getting down to the jam

When making the decision about which orbit to place their military satellites will take, the DoD chose GEO because fewer satellites could provide coverage for much of the Earth’s surface. Fewer satellites meant less money. But, as Mr. Loverro noted, “What is good for economics isn’t good for the military.”

Jamming a satellite’s signal requires being within the satellite’s beam – or coverage area. This is much easier with GEO satellites, because their coverage areas are so large. By launching military satellites into GEO, the coverage the military wanted came at a lower price tag, but with an increased risk of jamming. As Mr. Loverro explained, “GEO was cheap to launch, but harder to defend.”

But there are commercial solutions that can help protect military communications from jamming.

Today’s commercially-available High Throughput Satellites (HTS) utilize steerable spot beams that provide incredible throughput, but cover smaller areas. Some of these satellites are currently operating in MEO orbits, meaning they combine high throughput with low latency, and are naturally more prolific and harder to jam. By embracing these commercial HTS and MEO satellite constellations, the military can essential get anti-jamming capabilities baked in.

Luckily, the door could be opening for an increased role for commercial partners in the military’s space architecture – making these HTS and MEO constellations more readily available for military users. As part of the wideband satellite AoA, the DoD is exploring new ways to approach the construction of their satellite architecture, and is looking seriously at a more integrated network of commercial and military-owned satellites.

By building a combined architecture that embraces a combination of purpose-built, military-owned satellites and commercial capabilities, the military can better take advantage of the innovative new solutions that commercial providers are bringing to market. Based on statements from Mrs. Ryals, that could very well be in the cards:

“There’s a big push to expand and increase our partnerships for resiliency and national defense – to build capabilities together. I think that expands not just to allied partners, but also commercial partners. With the amount of commercial capability that’s out there and available today, we have to find ways to change the way that we procure SATCOM capabilities. We have to look through the AoA and look at how we’re approaching that balance of military vs commercial. But we recognize that the commercial industry is one of our biggest partners that we have not yet tapped to help us build this architecture and build this infrastructure.”

By tapping this previously under-utilized resource, the military can better protect its satellite capabilities from jamming and ensure that the warfighter never has to go without essential services again.

MEO and HTS constellations are the latest commercial innovations being embraced by the federal government, capable of securely delivering fiber-like bandwidth to practically anywhere on the planet. For additional information of these solutions, download the following resources:

• High Throughput on the High Seas
• White Paper: Satellite Evolution Sparks a Service Revolution
• High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications
• White Paper On O3b “Fiber Like” Satellite Communications for U.S. Government Applications

The post Overcoming the largest threats to military satellites and increasing resiliency appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Much like in previous years, SATELLITE 2018 also featured a government track, with a handful of government-focused panel discussions and keynote addresses about the current state of satellite across the federal government and United States military, and some of the ways satellite use and acquisition across the federal government is changing.

These government-focused sessions covered a wide range of topics from the use of satellite in emergency response to the evolution of on-orbit servicing. However, there was one common theme that ran across all of them – regardless of topic or speaker. That theme was “Change.”

The Recapitalization of Satellite Resources
Right now – in 2018 – we’re seeing the confluence of multiple trends in space and satellite that have the potential to redefine the industry, introduce immense new capability to the user, and revolutionize how the satellite industry and federal government partner to overcome communications and connectivity challenges.

However, that could potentially be squandered away should the industry and the government not take essential steps towards changing how they interact and do business.

This sentiment was echoed during a panel discussion featuring multiple industry executives and Norman Yarbrough, an Operations Research Analyst within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for C3, Cyber, and Business Systems at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). During this panel discussion, which was entitled, “Adapting the Government-Commercial Satcom Relationship for the 21st Century,” the speakers each shared how the industry is at an interesting place with tremendous potential for change and exciting new partnerships between industry and the government.

Each of the industry panelists echoed the fact that the military is currently facing a recapitalization of their satellite resources – a result of multiple satellite constellations coming up on their end of life. They each discussed how a wideband analysis of alternatives (AoA) in the works within the United States Air Force which puts the military in a position to make several important satellite decisions.

Chief among these decisions is the role that commercial satellite services will play in military satellite infrastructures moving forward.

Looking to Industry for Innovation
The satellite industry has made it clear over the past few years that their services could and should become a larger part of the military’s satellite networks and infrastructures moving forward. Their reasoning is both clear and valid – industry is now the innovator in space, and a greater reliance on satellite communication providers could help the military overcome some of the largest satellite challenges that they’re currently facing – including a need to better secure and protect satellites and satellite communications, and a need to meet ever-increasing bandwidth demands and requirements.

The role of commercial satellite providers as innovators is ultimately a result of the requirements of their business and the speed at which they operate. While military satellite programs can take decades to plan, design, build and launch satellites, industry needs to move faster. New commercial satellites are being built and launched constantly, and this rhythm means that new satellite technologies will invariably be available onboard commercial satellites well before purpose-built government satellites.

This was further reflected in the comments from Mr. Yarbrough, who said, “We look to industry to be our mission partner. To provide the goods and services that we need to meet national security requirements. We look to them for the innovation of the future to help us better meet those needs.”

As the industry leaders on this panel noted, advancements in commercial satellites – including the launch of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) – and the introduction of new commercial satellite constellations at lower orbits – including MEO – means that higher bandwidth and lower latency connections to practically anywhere on the globe are becoming increasingly available.

At a time when the DoD is looking to establish a path forward with its satellite infrastructure – industry is evolving and bringing previously unheard-of capabilities to market. The stage seems set for industry and military to come together to bring these advanced capabilities to bear for the warfighter but concerns and challenges remain.

Improving the Mission While Providing Better Protection
Commercial satellites can also deliver benefits to the military in many ways. The proliferation and disaggregation of military satellite communications across multiple commercial satellites and networks – and across multiple orbits – can only help increase their resilience and assurance. Many of these satellites also feature built-in protections against attempts to disrupt them – including defenses against jamming.

This need for increased resilience and more assured communications was also reflected by Mr. Yarbrough, who claimed that, “I’m always going to come back to the warfighter. That’s what everything we want to do is about. We want to deliver them the benefits that we’re talking about…the ability to have assured communications…”

Enabling the warfighter is the ultimate focus for the DoD – ensuring that they have access to the solutions that they need, the tools they require to accomplish the mission and the services that are going to improve mission success – while improving their own survivability.

Both industry and government panelists agreed that increased testing, communication and information sharing will ease the way for increased collaboration into the future. Both sides also seemed confident that many of these challenges can be overcome, and that a new generation of warfighter will soon go into battle with a new generation of IT enabled devices, connected via the most advanced satellite communications services.

If there was one overarching theme at SATELLITE 2018, it was change. A shift and evolution in how the military approaches satellite seems imminent, and the role of COMSATCOM providers in military networks seems poised to increase.

MEO and HTS constellations are the latest commercial innovations being embraced by the federal government, capable of delivering fiber-like bandwidth to practically anywhere on the planet. For additional information of these solutions, download the following resources:

• High Throughput on the High Seas
• White Paper: Satellite Evolution Sparks a Service Revolution
• High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications
• White Paper On O3b “Fiber Like” Satellite Communications for U.S. Government Applications

The post SATELLITE 2018 provides window to satellite industry and government at a time of transition appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The COMSATCOM Pathfinder Initiative explores multiple facets of flexible, long-term investment-based acquisition models for access to commercial SATCOM capabilities and infrastructure from a diverse supplier base, including identifying any legal, policy, regulatory, management, cultural, or other barriers to government adoption of such business models at scale. Each Pathfinder is an independent program and builds off previous efforts. Ultimately, the COMSATCOM Pathfinders will be referenced as the DoD completes its Wideband Communication Systems Analysis of Alternatives (AoA).

<To listen to a two-part podcast series on the Pathfinder Programs, click HERE.>

The first Pathfinder Program, coined Pathfinder One, involved the purchase of transponders and capacity aboard a SES Space and Defense-owned satellite. This marked a departure in how the military paid for and acquired COMSATCOM services. It also involved the use of traditionally cheaper satellite alternatives – inclined satellites.

“Pathfinder One changed the way the DoD purchased COMSATCOM capabilities by procuring transponders on a commercial satellite versus the traditional model of leasing bandwidth on the spot market,” said Pete Hoene, the CEO of SES Space and Defense. “This solution included the utilization of inclined satellite capacity which allowed the government to pay significantly less than traditional station-kept bandwidth.”

Inclined satellite capacity is often cheaper than geostationary (GEO) satellite capacity because of the nuances required to take advantage of it.

Inclined satellites are effectively older GEO satellites that in the later stages of their operational lives.  To maximize their remaining fuel – operators reduce station-keeping adjustments and extend the life by allowing the spacecraft to drift in the north/south direction. The square box that GEO satellites usually sit in becomes a rectangle, and the satellite drifts in an elongated figure eight pattern within it.

This north/south movement around the Equator is what makes inclined satellite capacity unique. The movement of these satellites requires a tracking antenna that can follow them as they move in their rectangular box. As you might imagine, there are many satellite use cases that call for tracking antennas – such as USAF planes.

According to Mr. Hoene, “Since remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) have antennas capable of tracking inclined satellites, AFRICOM can use Pathfinder One capacity to support MQ-1 (Predator), MQ-9 (Reaper), and RQ-4 (Global Hawk) operations. In fact, United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) approved the use of inclined capacity on these platforms and is currently using the available Pathfinder One bandwidth to command and control their critical RQ-4 Global Hawk Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance missions…”

Pathfinder One was a success for the Air Force, and it’s clear that the military took notice of the program’s accomplishments. But the military may not have been the only organization to observe the lessons learned from Pathfinder One. Private industry recognized the innovative use of inclined orbit bandwidth as well.

Just a few weeks ago, Space News published an article disclosing that Global Eagle Entertainment, one of the world’s leaders in in-flight entertainment, “…had purchased all the capacity on an undisclosed satellite to support aeronautical customers, in particular Southwest Airlines, the company’s largest customer.”

That satellite was later revealed to be SES satellite AMC-3, which Space News says, “…carries 24 Ku-band transponders and launched in September 1997 on an Atlas 2A rocket.” SES will operate the satellite and provide support for Global Eagle.

What does that have to do with Pathfinder One? Well, it’s pretty much the same situation. Global Eagle Entertainment is effectively purchasing the capacity onboard an inclined satellite. Also, much like Pathfinder One, the satellite in question will be used for a purpose that is a perfect fit for inclined capacity – in-flight entertainment onboard airplanes already fitted with tracking antennas.

The Global Eagle announcement illustrates the benefits that inclined satellites could have for both private enterprise and the federal government. It could become a best practice to utilize this less-expensive capacity in any implementation or use case where tracking antennas are already being utilized. Whether it’s on Navy ships, RPAs or airplanes, inclined bandwidth could be an economical, effective way to deliver connectivity and communications on the move.

The post Private industry also learns from Air Force Pathfinder appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

What we heard was that the military and the rest of the federal government were well aware of the benefits of hosted payloads, but concerns about risk and issues related to culture across agencies and military branches were impeding adoption.

But the light at the end of the tunnel does currently appear to be an enormous, burning beacon that’s much closer and more attainable than it ever has been in the not-so-distant past. That’s because many of the government decision makers in attendance were tirelessly working to champion hosted payloads, and made powerful statements about them being incorporated into future military and government satellite plans moving forward.

The timing for increased hosted payload adoption couldn’t be better. That’s because another common discussion at this year’s Summit focused on a huge problem that the military is going to face in the future. A problem that hosted payloads could help the military overcome – securing and protecting satellites in space.

Space – no longer the ultimate high ground
The protection of satellite networks and capabilities is a relatively new challenge facing our military. A fact that was emphasized by Dr. David A. Hardy, the Associate Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force (Space), when he said, “We historically viewed space as the ultimate high ground – a place where our adversaries couldn’t attack us.”

But that invulnerability in space is gone. Space is an increasingly contested environment. Today, both government and commercial spacecraft face obstacles that they never faced before.

First, there’s the sheer number of objects in space, which is only going to increase as the cost of satellites and launch continues to decline. Each new satellite that is launched creates increased congestion and raises the probability of a collision in space. This was a popular topic of discussion at the Summit, the focus of an entire keynote discussion, and I’ll be discussing it in an upcoming post on the GovSat Report.

Then there are the issues that military satellites face with jamming, interference and direct kinetic attacks on satellites. These are all capabilities that our adversaries have, and can use to neutralize our satellite infrastructure – which is widely known to be a significant tactical advantage to our military.

With satellite communications so essential to activities in theater and our warfighter, it’s essential that satellites are protected in this new, contested environment. And if a satellite is targeted for jamming or kinetic attach, it’s equally essential that the capabilities it empowers aren’t lost. According to Dr. Hardy, “We need to build an overall DoD satellite architecture that is resilient, in that it maintains performance even if it is attacked.”

Hosted payloads and COMSATCOM as keys to resiliency
We know that our adversaries have been testing their capabilities for launching kinetic attacks against satellites. It’s no longer a question of “if” we’ll have to conduct military operations in situations where our satellite infrastructure is attacked or compromised – it’s a question of “when.”

Understanding the new risks to our satellites, the DoD is now looking at COMSATCOM services, small sats and hosted payloads as a potential way to increase its resiliency in these circumstances. According to Dr. Hardy, “(The) promise of increased capacity and hosted payloads in GEO – and small sats in LEO – provides opportunities to increase resiliency.”

How they accomplish that is very simple. By utilizing a combination of satellites and satellite services – including COMSATCOM capacity, hosted military payloads on commercial satellites and small sats in LEO or MEO orbits – for military operations, the DoD can effectively disaggregate their satellite communications network and make it significantly harder for adversaries to deny satellite communications and capabilities.

In this situation, it would be extremely difficult to target any one satellite to compromise the military’s satellite communications and capabilities. Even if a satellite was compromised, it would effectively fail to deny those mission-critical services.

Also, should an adversary look to disable a hosted payload or COMSATCOM service on a commercial satellite, they would effectively be targeting far more than a single nation’s military. They could be cutting off essential communications services for other nations, and maybe even their own citizens.

As Dr. Hardy stated, “A more proliferated architecture that is not all military only can increase capability and resilience.”

There is a significant groundswell of support for increased adoption of COMSATCOM services and hosted payloads across the federal government and military. Their ability to drastically increase the government’s access to space is one of the reasons for this support, but the need to protect satellites may be just as important.

It’s a new age in space, and we’re not alone in orbit. The speakers at the Hosted Payload and Small Sat Summit made it abundantly clear that we need to protect our satellites and satellite capabilities, and hosted payloads could play a role in accomplishing that mission.

For additional information on hosted payloads and the ways in which they can help the federal government by increasing access to space and cutting costs, click on the following resources:

• Whitepaper: What is a Hosted Payload?
• Hosted Payloads Infographic
• PODCAST: Nicole Robinson on the benefits of hosted payloads for NOAA and other federal agencies
• PODCAST: CHIRP team discusses program and benefits of hosted payloads

The post The role of COMSATCOM and hosted payloads in protecting military satellite capabilities appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

So, if the public sector – the federal government, government agencies, branches of the military and the intelligence community – know that hosted payloads can deliver significant savings and benefits, why aren’t they using them?

That question was one of many at the crux of the discussions at this year’s Hosted Payload and Small Sat Summit –an annual event hosted by Access Intelligence which focuses on the uses of hosted payloads and small satellites to accomplish government missions.

This year’s Summit brought together an interesting mix of industry leaders from satellite manufacturers and satellite communications (SATCOM) providers, government decision makers and program managers from exciting small sat and hosted payload projects across the federal government. The keynote addresses and panel discussions at this year’s event did an excellent job of illustrating the state of hosted payload adoption across the government, and the organizational challenges keeping hosted payloads from seeing even broader adoption.

Hosted Payload Alliance Weighs in on Payload Adoption

Early in the conference, Al Tadros, the Chair of the Hosted Payload Alliance and VP of Civil and DoD Business for Space Systems Loral (SSL), laid out some of the many benefits of hosted payloads to attendees. In Al’s words, these benefits include, “Increased access to space, lower launch cost and risk, more resilient architectures resulting from hosting on commercial satellites, operational flexibility of having access on a large number of commercial satellites and payload-focused acquisitions rather than the full-on, purpose built, free-flyer missions that the government regularly uses.”

Although all of those benefits are alluring for the military and federal government, the ability for hosted payloads to dramatically increase the government’s access to space is potentially the most compelling. The concept of hosting payloads on commercial spacecraft makes each new satellite that is launched by the COMSATCOM industry an opportunity to expand the government and military’s presence in space.

According to Al, “In 2015…there were 65 commercial launches, which added to the 1500 satellites in operation – half of which are commercial satellites and 37 percent of which are commercial communications satellites. This is a huge percentage of what’s in space, and the access to this is the promise of what hosted payloads can provide.”

But even this ability to increase access to space has yet to drive hosted payload programs across the military. And that may have more to do with what the military is comfortable with, and less to do with what is best for the military and its mission.

History of DoD Hosted Payload Initiatives

One of the first keynote addresses at the event was delivered by Dr. David A. Hardy, the Associate Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force (Space), who explored the history of the DoD’s space initiatives and illustrated how they impact space policy today.
As Dr. Hardy explained, the Air Force has historically faced limited options and opportunities for launch. These limited launch options were extremely expensive, so the Air Force responded by building massive, monolithic space craft that would deliver immense capability while maximizing the return on their launch investment. And the high total cost – coupled with the mission-critical nature – of the satellites being launched made the Air Force understandably risk adverse and inclined to try and control everything.

As Dr. Hardy stated, “We in the DoD space community like to keep control over our assets.”

Much of this sentiment about facing and handling risk, and demanding to own every part of the process and all parts of a mission, were echoed in a later presentation by Major James Crane, the Deputy Branch Chief of the Air Force’s Hosted Payload Office, within the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC).

“I would like to acknowledge the frustration that you all have with how quickly the government has adopted hosted payloads,” Major Crane shared. “It’s not really a technical issue. It really comes down to how the government deals with risk. We also have frustration from the side of the government with our inability to adopt hosted payloads.”

Major Crane’s position and office are, in themselves, a positive step forward to overcoming this frustration and increasing hosted payload adoption across the government. His office’s mission is to effectively serve as a liaison between industry and government entities to help identify hosted payload opportunities and bring payloads together with COMSATCOM providers that can host them.

Utilizing an IDIQ contract called HoPS (known as the Air Force’s Hosted Payload Solutions Program), Major Crane can appropriately match government projects with comparable hosting opportunities. Unfortunately, this faces its own limitations and challenges. The agencies that are most likely to embrace hosted payloads are also those least likely to have budget dollars to afford them.

According to Major Crane, “The people that can best accept a lot of risk are often the scientific community and scientific exploration missions. Unfortunately, while they can most accept the risk, they’re also the organizations and projects with the tightest budgets.”

Regardless of these challenges, signs are pointing towards hosted payload adoption increasing in the coming years.

According to Major Crane, “I think we are seeing at SMC some movement towards ensuring that the hosted payload concept is being included in all AoAs moving forward. There is a wideband AoA coming up in the near future. The MILSATCOM AoAs will include commercial hosting. We’re working closely with the offices that develop the concepts for the AoAs [to ensure hosting is included.]”

Hosted Payload Office Looks Towards a More Collaborative Future

Hosted payload adoption will only increase as the DoD and the COMSATCOM industry continue to work more closely together. The military has been historically guarded when working with industry, but they’re learning to work more closely with the private sector from organizations that have historically been extremely collaborative. In fact, the ongoing TEMPO program – which includes NASA and the Air Force working together on a hosted payload opportunity – has been a learning process for the Air Force.

As Major Crane shared, “There is a paradigm at SMC with how we interact with industry. Interacting with NASA and seeing how they interact with industry as we’re executing this TEMPO effort has been really eye-opening for us in the Hosted Payload Office. And we’re starting to see that the way that we’re implementing acquisitions is overly constraining, and that we do it to ourselves. That has been a very interesting revelation.”

Ultimately, the benefits of hosted payloads are staggering. Their ability to increase access to space, slash the cost of military space missions and fundamentally shift the way the military approaches satellite and spacecraft acquisitions is simply too important to let concerns about risk and control keep hosted payloads on the ground.

As Dr. Hardy said, “I feel that [keeping control over our assets] is an outmoded concept…We are looking at hosted payloads and they WILL be a part of our future architecture.”

For additional information on hosted payloads and the ways in which they can help the federal government by increasing access to space and cutting costs, click on the following resources:

• Whitepaper: What is a Hosted Payload?
• Hosted Payloads Infographic
• PODCAST: Nicole Robinson on the benefits of hosted payloads for NOAA and other federal agencies
• PODCAST: CHIRP team discusses program and benefits of hosted payloads

The post Hosted payloads – do the benefits finally outweigh the risks? appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

This article was originally published in SpaceNews.

Was the Commercial Satellite Communications (COMSATCOM) Pathfinder One a success or failure?*

A little over a year ago, this was the question posed to senior U.S. Government leadership at a U.S. Strategic Command hosted event and the answers varied widely. However, since contract award, the initiative has matured and now can be categorized as an overwhelming success.  Pathfinder One demonstrated the feasibility of a new and innovative satellite communications (SATCOM) acquisition approach and is supporting critical Department of Defense (DoD) missions – all at a price and timeline beneficial to the government.  Further, Pathfinder One is a great example of how the government can leverage the COMSATCOM industry to rapidly and affordably provide critical SATCOM capabilities to our warfighters.

Pathfinder One changed the way the DoD purchased COMSATCOM capabilities by procuring transponders on a commercial satellite versus the traditional model of leasing bandwidth on the spot market.  While COMSATCOM is normally leased using Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) or Operations and Maintenance funding, Pathfinder One was executed using procurement dollars.  For the first time, the government purchased COMSATCOM as vital infrastructure instead of a service.

SES Space and Defense was able to engineer a cost-effective, customized Pathfinder One solution that fully satisfied the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) operational requirements and could support evolving requirements as well.   This solution included the utilization of inclined satellite capacity which allowed the government to pay significantly less than traditional station-kept bandwidth.  Since remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) have antennas capable of tracking inclined satellites, AFRICOM can use Pathfinder One capacity to support MQ-1 (Predator), MQ-9 (Reaper), and RQ-4 (Global Hawk) operations. In fact, AFRICOM approved the use of inclined capacity on these platforms and is currently using the available Pathfinder One bandwidth to command and control their critical RQ-4 Global Hawk Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions – a significant achievement for operational COMSATCOM integration.

By working closely with the end user, SES Space and Defense was able to flexibly adapt the Pathfinder One solution to meet evolving requirements without any loss in service or availability. In fact, the service is so reliable that the U.S. Government’s Regional SATCOM Support Center Europe recently stated that they are managing the COMSATCOM Pathfinder One bandwidth in exactly the same way, and from the very same office that manages the available wideband military satellite communications bandwidth – another COMSATCOM integration success.

In summary, COMSATCOM is a critical national security enabler and Pathfinder One has helped shape how the U.S. Government can flexibly and affordably acquire these capabilities. Pathfinder One is, in fact, an unequivocal success and has produced ground-breaking lessons-learned.   SES Space and Defense applauds the DoD for their innovative vision and we look forward to leveraging the Pathfinder One lessons learned for future Pathfinder efforts.

The post Lessons Learned from Pathfinder One appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

These sentiments were reflected by Retired Major General Jay Santee in the panel discussion immediately following General Raymond’s address. During his introductory remarks, General Santee shared his vision of a combined infrastructure that utilized military satellites working seamlessly together with available COMSATCOM capabilities to deliver the communications and connectivity needed to accomplish missions.

This raised some interesting questions about how the relationship between these parties can be improved, how the COMSATCOM sector could work to address military concerns and the Air Force’s plans for embracing some exciting new COMSATCOM innovations that are rapidly entering the marketplace.

To get answers to these questions, we reached out to Captain AnnMarie Annicelli of the United States Air Force’s public affairs department. Here is what she and the United States Air Force had to say:

GovSat Report: During Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond’s keynote presentation at this year’s SATCON event, he stated that commercial SATCOM was essential for military operations and communications today. What is COMSATCOM’s current role when it comes to empowering military communications operations in theater, and how will that change or evolve in the future?

Captain Annicelli: COMSATCOM enables our armed forces to project power globally, supports the operation of Naval forces underway, Army, Navy, and Air Force mobile units, and allows field commanders to command and control our military forces around the world.

In addition to supporting our military forces COMSATCOM helps us establish a disaggregated satellite communications architecture which provides a more resilient communications system.

We see our relationship with commercial satellite service providers continuing to evolve to provide greater resiliency, transmission protection, increase flexibility, and affordability, all of which our pathfinders efforts are designed to help achieve.

GovSat Report: What stands in the way of increased COMSATCOM use within the federal government and military? What changes are necessary in the acquisition and purchasing processes to open the door for increased COMSATCOM use in the military?

Captain Annicelli: The preservation of our space capabilities, which includes both mission assurance and assured access are very high priorities for the Department.  Space has become a contested environment and our dependence on space-based assets requires that our future space architectures possess sufficient protection measures to ensure mission accomplishment.

Commercial systems provide a cost effective solution to deliver satellite communications because they are designed for efficiency and reduced costs.  While COMSATCOM offers some protection measures, it may offer insufficient protection and flexibility that our future SATCOM systems require to meet the needs of our combatant commanders.

As of FY13, the latest year for which accurate numbers are available, the DoD had leased approximately more than $1 Billion worth of COMSATCOM.  This breaks into ~$780 Million per year for wideband COMSATCOM and almost $240 Million for narrowband mobile-user COMSATCOM.  Focusing on the larger component, commercial lease costs are roughly four times the cost of DoD-owned wideband MILSATCOM based on year-by-year lease costs and is a barrier to the expanded use of COMSATCOM at current cost levels.

DoD has considered use of longer-term leases, however Congressional funding is on a year-by-year basis.  Consideration of longer term leases to reduce costs must include the risk of future year reductions with early lease termination fees that effectively increase the prices for longer term leases.  Based on such considerations, the AF has embarked on a series of purchases (acquisition Pathfinders) of COMSATCOM resources to demonstrate COMSATCOM costs can be substantially reduced with an acquisition (purchase) versus short-term lease approach to COMSATCOM.

In Pathfinder 1, cost reductions on the order of a factor of four versus 1-year leasing was demonstrated where innovative contracting purchased two transponders on a commercial satellite. However, the satellite was an older, end-of-life satellite operating in an inclined orbit, not typical of commercial satellites. As a result, the 4-to-1 reduction in commercial costs achieved in Pathfinder 1 is not anticipated to be repeated for traditional COMSATCOM services.

Planned Pathfinders 2-5 will build on the lessons learned from Pathfinder 1 to demonstrate additional scenarios for increased savings of acquiring COMSATCOM for military use.  High Throughput Satellites (HTS) offer prospects for order of magnitude savings, potentially even less than a follow on to Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS). COMSATCOM technologies hold promise to reset this relationship.

GovSat Report:  In the aforementioned keynote address, General Raymond stated that the military isn’t currently equipped to utilize the next generation of high throughput satellites. What does the military need to do to take advantage of these cost-saving, higher-bandwidth satellites? What can industry do to help the military prepare to utilize this technology?

Captain Annicelli: The use of High Throughput SATCOM (HTS) is already being considered by the Air Force’s Pathfinder initiative; however, HTS requires a more complex approach to ground infrastructure and more flexible approach to terminal architectures than used for traditional systems.  The ability of terminals to offer flexible technology on ramps for HTS products is not an available capability.

HTS system exploit closed network, tightly coupled terminal, modem, satellite systems which are largely indigestible to legacy DoD terminals.  High terminal cost barriers, and inflexible architectures also render terminals resistant to change.  Pathfinders are working to identify common very flexible terminal/modem on ramps to access order of magnitude HTS capacity and affordability improvement.

GovSat Report:  In addition to HTS, there are other, lower cost satellite services and offerings available to the military that could help decrease costs and increase efficiency. I’m thinking – specifically – about hosted payloads and inclined satellites. Where does the Air Force stand on hosted payloads? Are there plans to increase hosted payload usage in the near future and what barriers may be in the way?

Captain Annicelli: This is another area that is being given careful consideration.  The use of hosted payloads is not new to the Air Force and DoD; however, its use has so far been limited to military payloads on military owned and controlled satellites.  Integrating military payloads on commercial platforms presents challenges. For example, synchronization with a host satellite requires the government to make some compromises regarding satellite location and project schedule.  Moreover, legislation prohibits the launching of military payloads using non-U.S launch providers, which limits the availability of suitable hosts.

Lastly, obtaining approval to transmit military frequencies on a commercial payload is a timely process that could impede synchronization of both military and commercial programs. The DoD is pursuing pathfinders to overcome these constraints. Leveraging hosted payloads is viewed by the Department as a promising means to incorporate mission assurance into our architectures.

GovSat Report: What about inclined satellites for use in UAV and other similar missions? These satellites represent a cost-savings opportunity for the USG and are currently being used/leveraged by ACC. Are there plans to utilize them more in the future?

Captain Annicelli:  The MQ-1/9 community is currently using inclined orbit satellites for CONUS test and training and some OCONUS contingency operations.  Initial testing of inclined orbit operations completed in July 2014 and ACC began transferring some real-world operations at that time.  Additional purchases of inclined orbit bandwidth were completed in FY15 and a larger transition will complete by mid-February 2016.

GovSat Report: The commercial industry believes COMSATCOM adds significant resilience to the military’s communication requirements.  With approximately 200 COMSATCOM satellites around the globe, hundreds of teleports, diversified and encrypted command and control elements and compatibility with the Protected Tactical Waveforms (PTW) of the future, what can industry do to further improve our resiliency?

Captain Annicelli: The DoD has identified six factors that enhance resiliency of space systems (Distribution, Diversity, Protection, Proliferation, Disaggregation, and Deception).  In general, any initiatives that contribute to these factors could potentially promote system resiliency.  COMSATCOM already implements some of these factors to varying degrees and the wideband SATCOM AOA intends to leverage, to the maximum extent feasible, COMSATCOM offerings to deliver assured satellite communications to the warfighter.

GovSat Report: During his SATCON address, General Raymond addressed some steps that he’s taken – including the launch of the Commercial Integration Cell (CIC) within the Joint Space Operations Center – to improve the relationship and collaboration between industry and the Air Force. What has the impact of the CIC been on the partnership between industry and military, and what else can be done to move this partnership forward?

Captain Annicelli: To date the CIC has been extremely valuable both as a portal in determining the scope of anomaly reporting and in improving the SSA common operating picture.

CIC collaboration contributes to improved cooperation and operational effectiveness between government and industry in several key areas of space operations including; improved situational awareness for making better decisions, enhanced ability to detect and mitigate anomalies, the identification and tracking of objects in space and options for technical solutions on automation, common standards and protocols.

What else can be done to move this partnership forward?

The CIC is still in a pilot, research and development period. During this time collaboration between the government and industry will continue and expand.  In addition to the CIC there are multiple partnering opportunities between the government and industry that enhance our ability to operate in space and contribute to the responsible use of space.

GovSat Report: What benefits do you anticipate from the closer integration and partnership between the military and COMSATCOM providers?

Captain Annicelli: Leading up to the wideband AOA, we have engaged substantially with our industry partners, who have offered  a continuous flow of new technology developments to leverage commercial innovation to meet our military requirements.  Efforts to work through cultural, technological, acquisition, and CONOPs limiting factors, such as those within our pathfinder programs, will improve prospects for the DoD to leverage promising technology offerings.

To learn more about inclined satellites, hosted payloads and High Throughput Satellites (HTS), click on the following resources:

• High Throughput Satellites for U.S. Government Applications 

• How Inclined Capacity Reduces Costs For The U.S. Government 

• The Big Beam Boom (High Throughput Satellites) 

• What is a Hosted Payload?

The post USAF on the Role of COMSATCOM in Operations, and the Path Toward Embracing Innovative SATCOM Services appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The CHIRP program was successful in accomplishing all of its mission objectives and had its initial demonstration period extended a total of three times. According to the Air Force, the more than 300 terabytes of OPIR data collected by CHIRP enabled, “Analysis of more than 70 missile- and rocket-launch events and more than 150 other infrared events.”

CHIRP was finally decommissioned in December of 2013, following 27 successful months of demonstrations.

We recently had the opportunity to interview the team responsible for the success of the CHIRP program. This team included Rich Pang, the Senior Director of Hosted Payloads at SES Space and Defense, Brent Armand, the Director of Hosted Payloads for Orbital ATK and John Fleming of Leidos (formerly SAIC).

During our conversation, we discussed the CHIRP program, the benefits of hosted payloads to the federal government and how to secure sensitive government data in hosted payload environments.

Here is what Rich, Brent and John had to say:

For additional information on hosted payloads, their benefits to the federal government and how they can provide economical access to space for government agencies and branches of the military, download the SES hosted payload white paper by clicking HERE. Or, read the following hosted payload resources:

• SES To Host NASA Payload on SES-14
• Learn about the Hosted Payload Alliance
• CHIRP featured in Beam Magazine

The post PODCAST: CHIRP team discusses program and benefits of hosted payloads appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Prior to this role, Hoene retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2010 following 30 years of service. In his last active duty position, Hoene served as the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Program Executive Officer for Command and Control, where he managed a portfolio of Joint and Coalition Command and Control and Information Sharing programs.

As a retired officer in the Air Force and a distinguished executive in the commercial satellite industry, Pete has witnessed – firsthand – the change and evolution that the industry has undergone over the past few decades. He’s witnessed the shifting relationship between the federal government and commercial satellite solution providers. He’s also been privy to the technological advancements that have shaped the industry, and will continue to do so into the future.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down for a video interview with Pete from the SES Space and Defense offices in Reston, VA. We used the opportunity to discuss Pete’s vision for the company now that he has taken over as CEO, his priorities for SES Space and Defense and what he predicts for the industry in the future.

Here is part one in a three-part video interview series with Pete Hoene – the new CEO of SES Space and Defense:

In part two of our three-part series, we ask Pete about an exciting new advancement in the commercial satellite industry – Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellations – and how they could benefit the federal government.

For more information about Pete Hoene, the new CEO of SES Space and Defense, read his interviews with MilSat Magazine and Via Satellite by clicking the links below:

SATELLITE 2015 Interview with Pete Hoene & Via Satellite on March 17, 2015

March 2015 MilSat Magazine interview with Pete Hoene & Tip Osterthaler

The post VIDEO: Pete Hoene on the evolution of the commercial satellite industry appeared first on SES Space and Defense.