[Satellite News 10-24-11] As one Africa’s main economic hubs, South Africa is looking to develop its milsatcom capabilities by working alongside NATO and other African Union Defense Forces on missions across the continent.

   Despite challenging economic times, the country is still pressing ahead with its plans, according to South African National Defense Force Brig. Gen. Ian Fordred of the Command and Management Information Systems Division.

   “From a financial aspect, we have not seen any cutbacks. No cutbacks have been exercised. The budget in real terms has been fixed. It has not had any impact in terms of the availability of secure personnel. The acquisition processes have not changed in regards to our departmental policy on satellite communication,” Fordred told Satellite News.

   Developing a more coherent strategy for X-band communications could be a key part of South Africa’s roadmap going forward, according to Fordred, who said the nation’s military is looking at what capabilities the bandwidth can deliver.

   “This is quite important for future missions with the likes of NATO and other African Union Forces. I think it will be important for us to expand our X-band capabilities in the future. In terms of internal and static infrastructure in South Africa, it is important this is supplemented with a commercial third party Earth station and deployable systems adapted for integration throughout the defense communications network,” he said.

   South Africa works with commercial satellite operators to currently meet its needs in terms of satellite capacity. Fordred explains South Africa’s approach to certain missions in the DRC and Sudan. “We are presently using Intelsat satellite capacity. We also procure internal and external mobile capabilities through Ku-band systems. We have an established hub in Pretoria. We also have the use of antenna feeder conversion kits. Our external capabilities now have a dual use advantage in the sense the satellite system for internal operations can grow at the same level as the budget,” he said.

   With the increase of fiber across Africa bringing more connectivity than ever before to the continent, the role of satellite is definitely being called into question. However, South Africa’s milsatcom strategy remains a very important piece of the puzzle, and Fordred thinks the South African National Defense Force sees satellite as crucial and critical in supporting all of its operations.

  “Whether these missions are for internal border line operations or for external missions, which could be worldwide, or even inside Africa supporting SADC or the African Union, we are looking to improve our satellite communications on-the-move capabilities. That is becoming more of a requirement and increasing in importance,” said Fordred. “We also have to look at our overall architecture and how we integrate various types of satellite communication systems. We have to look at how they are integrated into our defence communications network.”

   When asked what advances in satellite technology have impressed him recently, Fordred noted the advances he’s seen in communications on the move applications. “The requirements of Defense Command and Control on the ground are such that an HF single channel is no longer sufficient. Sufficient bandwidth to address all the requirements of Commanders and Staff need to be addressed. However, I would say that the cost of bandwidth and airtime is one of the big drivers for us in terms of the utilization of satellite communications. The move to Ku-band and Ka-band with more focused beams, could be considered in future.”

   With governments around the world all seemingly tightening their belts, expensive milsatcom projects may not seem as necessary as they once were. One potential option for governments is to look at hosted payload options. The Australian Defense Force (ADF) has already gone down this route. Fordred said the industry could see something similar in Africa.

   “This opportunity does exist for the Southern African region and for the rest of Africa. Various initiatives are being considered in collaboration with other State Departments in South Africa and other African countries to launch a communications satellite for the region,” said Fodred. “I would think we are at least two to three years away from seeing such a hosted payload project in Africa.”

   The current challenges for African military end-users, however, remain modernizing infrastructure and giving South Africa strong milsatcom capabilities in the long-term. Fodred said South Africa is now working to convert some of its C-band systems to circular polarization and migrating to turbo coding and DVB-S2 for enhanced throughput. “I think moving towards future structures is a significant challenge. The fact that the DOD has migrated to a fully IP system is an important development. I think the main challenge is to deliver satellite capability and services to the Department of Defense as part of a Department approved mandate that will enable funding and an effective lifecycle of managing end user capability.”