Milsat News and Products of Note

Milsat News and Products of Note

In recent months SATCOM-related cybersecurity events have taken center stage. Most visible was the º background provided by the government about the orchestrated disruptions of the Landsat 7 and Terra imaging satellites. More recent was the Pentagon and NASA breach by Romanian hacker TinKode who allegedly posted to the Internet an image of files related to confidential satellite data from Goddard Space Flight Center.

With the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) leading its first missions against the Taliban in Helmand, Giles Peeters considers the primary communications concerns for the departing NATO forces and the ongoing ANSF operation.

The U.S. approach to implementing its national space policy will determine its future course in space. Will our nation act as a collaborative partner that leads by example? Or will we try to move forward unilaterally in space? What steps should the United States take today to ensure security in space for the future? General C. Robert Kehler, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command provides his perspective on the implementation of the National Security Space Strategy as a means to promote international cooperation, establish norms, and provide mission assurance for space-delivered assets vital to U.S. leadership.

First: The Bad—There is no such thing as good satellite interferences, unless your intention is to try and knock someone else’s traffic out of commission and you are good at completing such an act. That being said, there are two general categories of interferences: Intentional and Unintentional. The former is in the minority, the latter, the majority. “Bandwidth bandits,” such as unauthorized accesses and jamming signals, are two examples of intentional interferences. These individuals may, or may not, be difficult to detect, depending on the interference techniques being used, and more importantly, how good the catcher’s tools are in detecting such incursions.

Have you ever been in an earthquake? I have, once, and it’s terrifying. Not a powerful earthquake, admittedly, and most California residents would probably have called it a tremor. However, it was enough to cause me to wake me up in the middle of the night, in the dark, and my first thoughts were, “Why does it feel like my head is spinning? Did I really drink that much vino rosso with my bistecca di manzo dinner at Umberto’s Ristorante?”

The history of U.S. MILSATCOM has been one of aggregation of mission capabilities over time. The result has been today’s limited number of large satellites of ever-increasing complexity. Core U.S. MILSATCOM will span just 14 satellites by 2020 [Advanced EHF (AEHF): 4, Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS): 6, Mobile User Objective System (MUOS): 4]. Though new capabilities have been fielded and proven valuable, the consequences of this approach have been profound, resulting in fewer assets, increased cost and schedule uncertainties, and increasing delays in the fielding of new capabilities to support the warfighter. Recent budgetary constraints combined with program performance issues have forced a reevaluation of future requirements, procurement approaches, and technology roadmaps.

The goal of NG9-1-1 is to improve public emergency communication services by adapting to this century’s connected, multi-media-enabled, mobile society. In addition to connecting callers to 9-1-1, this program enables the public to transmit text, images, video and data to the 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

Squeezed development and testing times for satellites call for intelligent solutions. Like other structural testing applications, satellites are subjected to exacting test procedures. But unlike other structural testing applications, satellites are so fragile that testing is typically carried out on a ‘test model’ that is identical to the real-life ‘flight model’, but will in fact never be used once the testing is completed. Unsurprisingly, modelling on a scale like this is costly, so simulation is used wherever possible.

These are interesting times for employers who need to acquire top-level talent as well as for those seeking a career change. Today, companies’ economics compel them to re-assess their talent needs in order to remain competitive and drive growth. The Military communications industry is ripe with challenges and opportunities. One of the challenges faced by employers is the challenge of making a “great hire.”

Mr. Madden entered the Air Force in 1980 after graduating from Virginia Military Institute. He has gained vast experience in systems engineering, technical intelligence, command and control and space systems requirements, development, fielding and operations. In addition, he has commanded a Space Operations Squadron, a Material Acquisition Group, and most recently, the Global Positioning Systems Wing. He retired from active duty in the rank of colonel and entered civil service in 2010.

Kay Sears, President of Intelsat General, is responsible for implementing the company’s strategic and operational plans and for the overall mission of providing a range of sustainable, cost-effective and secure communications solutions to government and commercial customers.

In a world seemingly gone mad at times, our nation’s and our allies’ armed forces and government agencies are, nowadays, even more dependent upon the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data beamed to them by various MILSATCOM satellites. Retasking flexibility, observation without detection, and the delivery of near-instant communication and data are just three reasons for the continuance of satellite build programs that result in saved lives and operational successes.

On February 14, 2012, President Barack Obama signed a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill worth just over $63 billion, mostly intended for FAA funding to create a new national navigation system for both commercial aircraft, such as jetliners, as well as private aircraft. The intended outcome is to switch the nation’s air traffic control system from older radar systems to newer satellite-based Global Positioning Systems (GPS), enabling more efficiency and safety management procedures.

In February 2012, the commercial satellite industry and the U.S. Government marked the one year anniversary of the first award under the Future Commercial SATCOM Services Acquisition, or FCSA. The initial intent of the joint GSA-DISA vehicle was to create a common marketplace for government customers to increase competition, opportunities and technologies, and ultimately, provide competitive pricing to the government. As industry awaits the third tier of the FCSA suite, the custom satellite solutions or CS2 contract, MilsatMagazine spoke with SES Government Solutions President and CEO, Tip Osterthaler, to obtain his feedback on the Transponded Capacity and Subscription Services contracts released during this first year of FCSA.