In a previous post on the GovSat Report, Randy Bland of SES Space and Defense laid out why latency is yet another enemy on the battlefield for America’s military.
Ultimately, latency can keep applications and IT capabilities from operating effectively and quickly at the tip of the spear, resulting in more hardware – and more maintenance and IT staff – needing to be brought to the front lines.
Unfortunately, latency is almost unavoidable with traditional communications satellites, since data needs to travel enormous distances to the satellite and back again. However, there is an alternative that can drastically reduce latency and provide fiber-like connectivity and throughput – even when terrestrial fiber networks are unavailable.
This alternative is offered through Middle Earth Orbit – or MEO – satellites, which are much closer to Earth (1/4 the distance, in fact) than traditional geostationary satellites.
To get additional information about MEO satellites and the benefits they can deliver to the federal government, we sat down with Pete Hoene, the CEO of SES Space and Defense.
In the following video, Pete discusses MEO satellite constellations, just how quickly they transfer data and the almost unlimited potential they have for military and intelligence missions.