[11-08-07 – Satellite News] The Global MilSatCom 2007 show in London from Nov. 5 to Nov. 7 saw a variety of speakers highlight the ever-increasing importance of satellite communications in the military arena, as well as the changing dynamics between the need for dedicated military systems and using commercial satellite providers. The conference provided a host of talking points with a variety of speakers from Europe and the United States in particular, giving their views on the changing dynamics of the military space arena.

Day One

    The conference kicked off with senior figures from within NATO admitting that they had now entered a new era for military satellite communications. Brigadier (Ret’d) Tim Waugh, program manager for NATO SatCom and Deployable CIS, NATO C3 Agency told the Conference that NATO had to exist much more in a multinational environment, and this bought with it a new set of challenges in the military space arena. He said, “We have security concerns, interoperability concerns, management of systems concerns etc. We have to make the most efficient use of resources. We have gone from the strategic into the tactical arena. We have now gone right down into the tactical move arena. We are now interested in on-the-move applications, for example. We weren’t before. We are having to use tactical satcoms at the lowest levels. We have had to pull all the UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) resources together. For example, we never thought we would be in Afghanistan five years ago.”
    Like many at the show, Waugh highlighted the facts that NATO had growing demands for capacity; hence managing capacity had become such a key issue. “We have a growing requirement for capabilities. The military frequencies in these UHF bands are very scarce. We don’t have the frequencies available. We have a limited number of frequencies. It is extremely difficult.”
    Efficiency of resources was one of the key themes of the show, and nowhere was this more evident when Stuart Eves, senior account manager, military systems for Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) spoke. Eves highlighted just how much capacity demands have increased, just throughout the last few years. He commented, “The increase in capacity between Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom has increased by a factor of 30. We have underestimated the demand for capacity.” Eves hinted that even a state-of-the-art system such as Skynet 5 may not have enough capacity to suit military needs. Unsurprisingly, Eves then talked about why he thought small satellites could be the answer to the prayers of Ministries of Defence (MoD) worldwide. Eves commented, “We think it is more logical to put up small satellites with unused transponders. Independence is an issue. In Iraqi Freedom, 75 percent of traffic carried by commercial assets. We don’t have full control over these satellites. Robustness is an increasing issue. The more we use satellites for military communications, the more they become targets. A cluster of smaller satellites is potentially a lot more robust.”
    Pointing out further advantages, Eves added, “We think the existing GEO environment is very conservative. We think that is putting a break on evolution. Affordability is also an issue. Small satellites are more affordable. Missions can be developed in less than two years. There is also an element of reduced risk. There is significant use of heritage designs, for example.”

Conflict Has Changed

    One of the ongoing themes of the show was how the nature of conflict had changed. Paul Millington, VP business development, Paradigm Secure Communications, commented, “Assessing the threat was a lot easier in history than before. Before, it was all about the eastern Bloc. The types of conflicts we face today are more disparate. The way you build services is a lot different. Our adversaries can take advantage of sophisticated technology. Responding to threats has a cost. Authorities are specifying requirements in a more complex way.”
    In terms of how this related to the United Kingdom, he said, “Skynet 5 has very high-powered transponders. Each transponder can produce multiple beams. Security and reslience comes in multiple layers. We have to plan for the long-term so you can use things interactively in the short-term.”
    Major Tom Single, Subject Matter Export, C4ISTAR, Space System, Deployable CIS & Nav 8 Division, NATO echoed these sentiments, as well as the earlier comments by Waugh. He said, “Today’s warfighter depends on space. You have issues such as communication, intelligence, weather, missile warning, space control etc. We have increased our needs for bandwidth. From a NATO perspective, this is about a longer war. The fight against terrorism will be a longer conflict. Bandwidth requirements are also only going to go up. There is now a daily requirement for space support.”
    Group Captain Andy Powell, Commanding Officer No 90 Signals Unit, Royal Air Force, U.K. said “things are massively different now” and that communications had to be available “when the commander wants it”. Interestingly, Powell talked about the timeframe for satellite capabilities being set by the enemy. Powell also spoke of issues about satcoms equipment in Afghanistan as an example of issues that armies were now facing in the field. He said, “Much of our equipment is legacy equipment, developed for the Cold War. We have to find ways to keep it cold. Satellite equipment has to be kept cool. This can prove difficult when temperatures reach over 40 degrees (in Afghanistan, for example). We must get around that problem.”
    In terms of the United Kingdom, Powell admitted that until Skynet 5 was in place, the Royal Air Force would have to use commercial capacity. Powell also said that new technology and systems had to be simple to use, as he “couldn’t afford to send people out on 4-5 week training courses to run these systems.”

Capabilities, not Capacity

    One of the most interesting presentations on day one was given by Don Brown, vice president, business development and hosted payload programs, Intelsat General Corp., who went against general trends and said that having more capacity was not necessarily the most important issue. In a provocative presentation, Brown commented, “There is increasing competition for bandwidth. The military service world are going to focus less on capacity and more on capability. We are the largest provider of capacity to the American military. The question is not just procurement. It is a focus on capabilities. The commercial industry is listening to military leadership seeking a capability-based information strategy. Let’s get out this mantra of building systems and talk about capabilities.”
    Brown said Intelsat was in the “real-estate business” and that its satellites were its main assets. Understandably, Brown spoke of the importance of commercial operators in the military space. Highlighting the benefits that someone like Intelsat can bring to the military space, he commented, “With commercial operators, there is a satcom risk reduction. We have a rapid deployment of new technology. We are evolving as the environment is changing. History shows that commercial satcom capacity will always be needed.”
    Interestingly, Brown focused a great deal of his presentation on Intelsat’s co-operation with Cisco on Cisco’s vision of IP routing in space. He commented, “The IRIS vision is about the vision of IP routing in space. We want to work with our European defence partners to deploy IRIS based applications. The U.S. government is reaching out to European partners. There is a tremendous opportunity for the terminal community. I am envisioning an optimised IRIS terminal. I know Cisco wants IRIS optimized terminals.”
    Following on from Brown’s presentation was Klaus Dörpelkus, space initiatives Europe & emerging markets, global government solutions group, Cisco Systems, who spoke of the importance of IP for improving the efficiency of space communications. He said, “IP is capable of supporting a lot of different applications. IP routing can improve overall efficiency. IP requires fewer resources and helps with mission planning. Terrestrial and space communications will be indistinguishable. Extending internetworking technologies and paradigms into space will drive new capabilities and behaviors. Extending IP networks into space will become a reality.”