The Orbiting Vehicle (OV)2 series of satellites were built by Northrop for use with the Titan IIIC launch vehicle. The series was initially developed for the Advanced Research Environmental Test Satellite (ARENTS) program, which was intended to obtain supporting data for the Vela series, which was cancelled.

Jim Ramsey is a military veteran with more than 35 years of communications and leadership experience. Jim served at the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) as a Presidential Communications Officer for both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. He was responsible for planning, installing and maintaining communications requirements for over 1,000 presidential trips, commanded four units, and ended his tour as the Operations Officer. Jim was inducted into the WHCA Hall of Fame in 2005.

Without question, the military’s need for mobility and bandwidth continues to grow exponentially. This is reflected in the launch of the latest WGS satellite this summer and the U.S. Air Force’s decision to pay Boeing to lay the groundwork for a seventh wideband military communications satellite to route video, voice and data messages to deployed troops.

Situational awareness is a vital requirement supporting U.S. homeland security and border control as well as military interests. In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Secure Border Initiative, a multi-year plan to help secure U.S. borders. The Initiative notes that the means to effectively secure the border is achieved through situational awareness and the ability to respond to potential issues immediately.

Communications On The Move (COTM) continues to be a vital technology to help the warfighter achieve mission success. Broadband Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity in a mobile environment on the ground, at sea, and in the air, provides instant access to information, which is paramount to military organizations for reconnaissance, situational awareness and critical communications needs.

For those units of the armed forces operating in remote parts of the globe, the ability to communicate with colleagues, friends and family has, until now, been restricted, due to affordability and the lack of communication channels.

Mission Critical Audio Conferencing is typically used in applications such as: Air Traffic Control Satellite Launch Control Air Force Command & Control Most of the systems that are currently deployed in the field today were developed in the eighties and nineties and hence are TDM (Time Division Multiplexing)-based.

Advances in technology allow modern forces to fight battles at extreme distances, separating the shooter from the target. Whereas Colonel Prescott delivered his famous directive in person and on the battlefield, the ground commander in Afghanistan communicates with the remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) unit in Nevada while inputs stream in from the distributed common ground/surface system in Virginia and the combined air and space operations center in Qatar.1 Similar to RPA operations, space operations are distinguished by vast geographic separation between the ground and (space) vehicle segments. According to General Kevin Chilton, commander of US Strategic Command, space operations are “absolutely global in nature and indifferent to physical terrain or lines drawn on a map.”2

With the success of a domestically-built and launched satellite in February 2009, the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) became the first Islamic nation, and the ninth nation overall, to launch its own payload into orbit. Since then, Iran has expanded its activities in space: reporting that it has committed significant funds to its space program, announcing new satellite and rocket plans, and promising to put a man in orbit by 2025.

Network Centric Warfare has played a transformative role in military operations during the first decade of the new millennium. Fueled by major advances in information technology, at the core of this new paradigm is an ever-expanding network infrastructure that enables ubiquitous, real-time communications by connecting every person and every device for superior military operations. The result is enhanced real-time situational awareness by being able to exchange more information with those in the field from a host of devices and ad-hoc networks.