Milsat News and Products of Note

Milsat News and Products of Note

The Department of Defense’s recently published “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense” calls for decisions on which military investments to continue, which to defer, and which to cancel. The result must maintain a ready and capable force while reducing “the cost of doing business.”

The president’s budget proposal for 2013 includes steep cuts in federal military spending. Requested military appropriations are about $32 billion less than this year’s total. Meanwhile, defense officials recently unveiled a plan to cut projected department spending by $260 billion over the next five years.

If there’s one thing this spring season has demonstrated, it is the fact that our space industry, around the world, has more of the “Right Stuff” than ever before. Consider, for a moment, our recently completed 28th National Space Symposium.

When FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate tweets about space weather warnings, people sometimes reply and ask if they should don aluminum hats. Although the thought of severe weather in space might sound like a plot from a science fiction novel, the threat is real—and could potentially cause widespread blackouts and shut down the electric power grid for an extended period of time.

Thomas S. Moorman Jr. retired as a partner with the international management and technology consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, on 1 March 2008. During his nearly ten year career with Booz Allen, he was responsible for the Firm’s Air Force and National Aeronautics and Space Administration business. He also established and led the Space Campaign which coordinated the Firm’s business activities across all of the Nation’s space sectors (military, intelligence, civil and commercial).

Diego Paldao has been involved with the satellite industry for more than 14 years. His initial exposure to satellites was with UUNET providing IP transit services. His team worked closely with satellite operators to provide connectivity via satellite for areas that were lacking in sufficient or stable fibre connectivity. Following this role, Diego joined global teleport operator, Verestar, which was ultimately acquired by SES. He has held various positions with SES, supporting enterprise and government clients based in North America. Diego then joined Australian satellite specialist NewSat in January and is contributing to the vison and the realization of the vision to launch Australia’s first commercial satellite fleet.

The U.S. space industry currently faces dual threats; major reductions in federal aerospace spending and overly restrictive satellite technology export policies. If we continue on this path, without implementing the right reforms, our nation risks the scenario of a weakened space industrial base that is unable to fully meet U.S. national security needs or sustain our technological edge against foreign competitors.

The U.S. space industry currently faces dual threats; major reductions in federal aerospace spending and overly restrictive satellite technology export policies. If we continue on this path, without implementing the right reforms, our nation risks the scenario of a weakened space industrial base that is unable to fully meet U.S. national security needs or sustain our technological edge against foreign competitors.

XipLink Real-time (“XRT”) is a new optimization capability that compresses, coalesces and prioritizes VOIP and UDP for significantly more bandwidth and packet efficiency without compromising quality. XRT can provide bandwidth savings up to 50 percent and guarantee quality delivery. This article describes how small packet applications can benefit from optimization, how XRT functions, how XRT can be added to a network to deliver large bandwidth and packets per second reductions, and then specific XRT savings examples.

February 17, 1864 was a cold night just outside Charleston Harbor. The War of the Rebellion had raged for the prior three years as a bitter struggle of will and staying power. Key to that staying power—or more precisely, to breaking it—was the strategic blockade Union forces had imposed on the South, the so-called Anaconda Plan;1 and no single point in that blockade was more important than Charleston Harbor. As the site of the Civil War’s first real battle and the largest port in the South, it bore both symbolic and strategic significance.