[Satellite News 09-06-11] In February, the Pentagon’s Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate awarded a $900,000 contract to Boeing to explore ways to modify existing commercial satellite capabilities on Intelsat and Inmarsat spacecraft to meet military satellite needs. The directorate also contracted Boeing to make recommendations about innovative and feasible acquisition alternatives and include ways to apply commercial satellite procurement practices to the military acquisition process. Boeing delivered these recommendations to the U.S. Air Force in July, which highlighted the importance of hosted payload applications.

   Jim Simpson is the Vice President of Business Development for Boeing’s Space and Intelligence Systems (S&IS) business unit and its new Commercial Satellite Services entity, which was created in February to design and market a variety of hosted payload and other configurations based on customer needs. Simpson sees the hosted payloads market representing a major part of Boeing’s long-term business model as global demand for communications bandwidth continues to increase dramatically, and as a significant return to the commercial side of the military aisle.

   Simpson spoke with Satellite News about what his company has learned during its last 12 months in the booming hosted payload business, which incorporates partnerships across the industry’s fixed, mobile and broadband satellite service segments, as well as what Boeing expects out of ongoing acquisition policy discussions in Congress.

 

 

 

Simpson: The key element we found was how important it was to have interoperability between the military’s current systems being used in both Ka-band and also in the ultra-high (UHF) frequencies that are already a part of our systems. It was important to consider that if the Inmarsat system and the Intelsat system allowed the same type of ground system to be utilized, the user would not have to purchase unique hardware to be compatible with the system. This was a critical part in making sure that our could be assimilated into the government’s utilization approach.

            Another important discovery we made was that the U.S. government found it surprising that they could actually utilize these hosted payloads autonomously from the actual activities of the satellite. In other words, we found that we would be able to provide this critical capability for them to operate the payload independently of the actual satellite service provider, which allowed them to view this system as more of a discrete satellite than a shared system.

 

 

Simpson: First of all, the Intelsat satellite system employs a heritage UHF payload, which is, fundamentally, the exact same payload that is being used for the current UHF fleet in orbit and also the heritage payload for the current Mobile User Objective System (MUOS). The MUOS system incorporates two hosted payloads – one for the Australian Defense Force, and another that is potentially going to be used by the U.S. government and its military allies.

In regards to the Inmarsat system, we’re providing a high-capacity military Ka-band payload, as well a commercial Ka-band satellite, with the ability to switch between military and commercial Ka-band bandwidths. For all intents and purposes, the capabilities of the military Ka-band applications are extremely complimentary with our Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) system. In both cases, the satellites provide military frequencies effectively identical to its dedicated satellite counterparts.

 

 

Simpson: In our opinion, compatibility with the ground system is the most critical element. We clearly do not want to have to build additional ground infrastructure when we don’t have to. The construction would defeat the purpose of the great economic savings provided by the ability to have customers share a satellite and have satellites share the launch vehicle. That said, we take significant pride in making sure that what we’re doing is always interoperable with the existing ground systems.

 

Simpson: We do. We learn a lot from our history of developing hosted payloads in several different geographic areas. One example of this is that we actually have hosted an EHF and a global broadcast payload on the current UHF satellite employed for the U.S. government. We do not consider hosted payloads as a unique experience. Some of the programs we provided for the commercial applications have allowed some of those capabilities to be used for other governments. I think the real important aspect of it is to make sure that whatever we’re doing does not affect the interdependencies of the primary payload. This allows us to be able to meet schedules and keep the costs low for our customers.

 

 

Simpson: Boeing, like many other satellite companies, felt that hosted payloads represent a technology that will eventually be part of the larger satellite community and we wanted to make sure that the infrastructure is available so that is be used by government customers. We felt that the Hosted Payload Alliance was one of those avenues that enabled a larger front for the community to be advocating for this capability and prevented us from looking like one discrete contractor. It advocates for something that the whole community feels is an important augmentation to the existing government satellite fleet.

 

 

Simpson: The U.S. government has not yet been able to fully utilize the hosted payload’s potential. To be frank, part of the reason that the government hasn’t been able to do this is because the hosted payloads aren’t up in orbit yet. In addition to simple availability, I think the other aspect that has held things up is that the government is trying to understand how the allocations of spectrum would work and how they would be able to manage these activities within their current infrastructure. Some of the possible ways they could do this would be through some kind of a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA 70) schedule with the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) or a contract through the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command SPAWAR or some other vehicle. I do believe that there are a lot of opportunities that are being worked right now by both sides. We don’t see any real impediment on the government side. We just see that there is a lot of groundwork that needs to be done to be able to enable the government to fully utilize hosted payloads.

            The good news for the satellite industry is that the U.S. government is clearly interested in hosted payloads. We have had very open dialog sessions with the government on how hosted payloads can compliment its primary systems. In addition to that, we’re even starting to see other approaches being investigated that are relative to either hosted payloads or commercial satellites complimenting the existing systems by the notion of DISA’s ASSIST program, which they are looking at as something that could come into fruition to compliment the WGS fleet. While we’re starting to see a real emergence of hosted payloads, we must remember that the technology is currently in an early phase of adoption for the U.S. government.

 

Simpson: For one, hosted payloads allow surge capability without requiring the military to field additional systems. Hosted payloads also allow military end-users to employ the system at specific times when it is required. The economics of the hosted payload become then become appealing to military end-users that don’t require the full system. In addition to that, hosted payload capabilities drastically reduce the costs of launching spacecraft, as well as the cost of the satellite and the ability to use the existing ground system. These are huge benefits in enabling hosted payloads to be a part of a military’s fleet. It is no surprise to anybody that the U.S. government already depends on commercial capability for more than 80 percent of its communications. This allows them to extend that available capability and enables them to use frequencies that are more familiar with military use.

 

 

Simpson: To date, the discussions have been revolving around how much additional, dedicated capability is going to be required by the U.S. military. While the DISA ASSIST program is not a hosted payload, it is being evaluated as an alternative approach to traditional procurement of satellites. I think that one of the key obstacles we’re seeing in these discussions is the fact that none of these systems have been fielded yet, so, relying on hosted payloads actually being there is a somewhat suspect angle to take. The influence of this angle hasn’t been as dramatic as I believe it will be in the next couple of years.

 

 

Simpson: The key is being able to integrate hosted payloads with the operational ground system and the operational constellation of satellite systems. The bottom line in accomplishing this is to have interoperability. If you are managing an experiment technology, you are using something that is usually placed outside of the mainline system. The hosted payloads we’re providing can truly be part of the existing integrated operational systems. The military uses UHF and Ka-band applications and capabilities on an ongoing basis. Other frequencies, such as X-band and tactical EHF activities, can be provided from a hosted payload delivering seamless capabilities. The most important capability is that the end-user can employ its current terminals and current ground systems and be able to manage that payload autonomously. That’s what we mean by an operational system. We have to be able to provide payloads that meet the missions of U.S. and international government customers.