[Satellite TODAY 03-22-13] While speaking on a military satcom panel at the Satellite 2013 conference, United States Army CIO G6 Space and Airborne Branch Senior Milsatcom Systems Analyst Edward Aymar predicted that the Pentagon would not procure any new satellite constellations until 2025, thought it would continue to acquire new terminals and other related technology.

   “We have got Wideband Global Satcom [WGS]. We also have Advanced-Extremely High Frequency [AEHF] and Mobile User Objective System [MUOS]. That will be basically what we have on orbit until 2025 and maybe beyond that,” Aymar said on the panel. “We know we don’t have enough capacity. Our opportunities to really achieve advances and efficiencies will be whatever we can do with the satellite terminals on the ground and on our satellite control systems.”

   Aymar said the Department of Defense does not have to establish a brand new network every time it arrives in a new area of operations. “This practice requires satellite communications because building up fiber-optics takes time. The Army does plan to field about 4,000 new WIN-T terminals for communications on the move. However, most of our current milsatcom fleets are designed to service fixed architectures.”