Meanwhile, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center is working on pilot programs to try different procurement approaches, but the programs will finish after the wideband study, making it difficult to apply the insights gleaned from the pilot projects. “They may not take advantage of what they learn,” Butler said.Procurement is only part of the challenge. Understanding a diverse range of needs that are likely to change is also a challenge. Case in point: The U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) now flies small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) equipped with wideband terminals, something that until recently only large unmanned aircraft could handle due to the weight of the terminals. The vast technological advances in mobile antenna technology has made this possible. There are also security and interoperability requirements. At the Global MilsatCom conference, General Sir Chris Deverell, British General Commander of Joint Forces Command, also highlighted security and interoperability requirements: “As we develop the next generation of Skynet, we will ensure it is as interoperable as possible with U.S. and allied systems. This will be made possible by the framework provided by the Combined Space Operations initiative, through which we are seeking a safe, secure and resilient space environment.” It would be more efficient and cost-effective for the DoD to plan for commercial satcom capacity ahead of time. The concern for commercial satellite providers, Butler said, is that “commercial is actually designed into the architecture rather than treated as an afterthought, purchased on the spot market.” That, of course, falls to the military defense organizations. For their part, satellite providers have service offerings that give customers the flexibility to respond to fluctuating demand and shifts in geographic coverage with a predictable cost structure. Satcom as a Service, available through offerings such as IntelsatOne Flex, enables government organizations to benefit from the technological advances of HTS as they meet accelerating bandwidth demands. Government satcom requirements will continue to change as technology evolves. Just as SOCOM had little way of knowing five years ago that a six-inch flat panel terminal would be piping live video from class III UAS, there’s no way to know what military bandwidth needs will be five years from now. Despite the uncertainty expressed at the Global Milsatcom conference, we are confident that by working with commercial satcom providers, military defense organizations can get the solutions they need.
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