Givati soldiers at their training week. Photo: Israeli Defense Force

[Via Satellite 09-21-2015] Military satellite communications needs are shifting toward a greater emphasis on mobility and on throughput, according to the latest research from NSR. The research firm projects that, despite a disputed spending environment, retail revenues from this sector will surpass $8 billion by 2024, accounting for more than 80 Gbps of High Throughput Satellite (HTS) capacity demand.

“2018 will be an inflection point for military mobility where a steady shift away from traditional land-centric applications towards maritime and airborne applications will occur,” said Brad Grady, senior analyst and co-author of NSR’s “Government and Military Satellite Communications, 12^th Edition” report. “That shift comes not only as battlefield strategies continue to become more mobile, flexible, and rapidly deployable — but, as the theatre of operations slowly shift to wider conflict zones, and oceanic environments.”

NSR expects narrowband land-mobile applications for troop and vehicle tracking, Command and Control (C2) applications, and other ways of connecting disadvantaged end-users will be the largest source of new in-service units over the next 10 years. The use of Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) X-band and HTS Ka-band will also drive growth. Combined with geostationary-HTS and L-band offerings, NSR projects Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) will account for the majority of retail revenue gain for managed services — more than 30 percent of this $4 billion market over the next ten years.