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Stephen Welby uses a beach analogy to describe his mission as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and for the Department of Defense’s quest for a Third Offset Strategy.
“To surf the wave of global innovation, we must paddle out in front,” he says at every stop in what has been a whirlwind seven […]

Using the U.S. wideband global satellite (WGS) model, Canada’s military plans a two-satellite constellation to fill its communications voids in the remote but fast-changing Arctic, a Canadian official told Space News at the recent MilSatCom USA symposium.
The project is expected to cost $2.4 billion (CDN) and be operational by 2023, Col. Jeff Dooling, director of

Appearing on the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” just over a year ago, Gen. John Hyten, who heads U.S. Air Force Space Command, warned that “without satellites, you go back to World War II. You go back to Industrial Era warfare.”
In the April edition of Aerospace America, Maryland research scholar Theresa Hitchens wrote that because civilians

Next month Intelsat will launch IS-33e, the second satellite in the Intelsat Epic high-throughput satellite (HTS) platform. Earlier this year, the launch of the first Epic satellite, IS-29e, provided coverage for the Americas and the North Atlantic shipping lanes. Now the launch of IS-33e will provide a dramatically improved level of satellite connectivity to Intelsat General’s customers

Globalization has made the world a smaller place, with people, goods and services crossing borders with ease unimagined by earlier generations. Much of this globalization is enabled by space-based capabilities, and specifically satellite communications capabilities.
Once the domain of only a few technologically advanced nations, there are now more than 70 nations operating earth-orbiting satellites. More

In a recent Washington Post story, Lexington Institute defense consultant Loren Thompson talked about the daunting task the U.S. Department of Defense faces in its quest for a “Third Offset” strategy: a long-term technology advantage over potential adversaries.
The Pentagon is seeking “an enduring competitive edge that lasts a generation,” Thompson said “But generations in technology

In a recent Washington Post story, Lexington Institute defense consultant Loren Thompson talked about the daunting task the U.S. Department of Defense faces in its quest for a “Third Offset” strategy: a long-term technology advantage over potential adversaries.
The Pentagon is seeking “an enduring competitive edge that lasts a generation,” Thompson said “But generations in technology

Just as Intelsat is launching its new generation of Intelsat EpicNG high-throughput satellites, a new type of small remotely piloted aircraft (sUAS) is being outfitted with beyond-line-of-sight SATCOM systems that are ideally suited to EpicNG spot-beam capabilities.
Known as Class III RPAs, these aircraft are often small enough to fit into a small shipping container. With

Over and over, the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense, and industry are calling for “resilience” in the face of a contested space environment.
But how do you measure resilience? How do you test it? How do you even know when you have it, short of an actual conflict?
Winston Beauchamp, the DoD’s Deputy Undersecretary for

The Air Force Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan is about speed, but not necessarily measured in terms of exceeding the sound barrier.
It’s about how fast potential adversaries are closing in on Air Force capabilities which have allowed the United States to maintain air superiority for decades. The plan defines air superiority as being achieved “when

Recently, I wrote about the push to improve Air Force Space Command’s Enterprise Ground Services (EGS). EGS is not a new kind of ground system or acquisition program – it’s a new approach to satellite ground infrastructure critical to supporting General John Hyten’s overall concept for the future Space Enterprise Vision.
Space has been called this