Giles Peeters commenced his military communications career in the U.K.’s Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1989. He worked in the MoD’s Defence Communications Security Agency (DCSA) as operations officer and procurement manager in the Satellite Service Delivery team before moving to the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) Cheltenham in 2001. From 2004 to 2007 Peeters’ significant expertise in commercial satellite communications proved invaluable in Iraq and Afghanistan as he provided front line tactical communication and deployment capability for Joint Helicopter Command. Peeters’ final rank was RAF Squadron Leader.
MilsatMagazine (MSM)
Mr. Peeters, please explain what is Track24 Defence’s specialty?
Giles Peeters
Track24 Defence specializes in beyond line-of-sight, commercial off-the-shelf, blue force tracking (BFT) end-to-end solutions. The Track24 Defence communications backbone is built on secure Iridium and Inmarsat’s satellite networks, along with cellular networks operated by commercial operators.
MSM
What does your role at Track24 Defence entail?
Giles Peeters
It’s my job to assess the market and make certain we’re continually developing solutions to meet customers’ needs. Our development experience means we can create bespoke BFT solutions according to demand—perfect for fast response forces that need to go operational at short notice and over great distances. Traditionally, the defence sector can take months or even years to respond to operational requirements with suitable capability. This has made us quite popular with customers, as we can quickly roll out encrypted BFT solutions that enable huge increases in BLOS BFT capability.
A large part of my role also includes researching and identifying new territories that need situational command and control capability. When you can go to a military and instantly increase its situational command and control capability by 80 percent, our solution becomes hard to ignore.
What are the typical problems militaries suffer from in the communications sphere and how does your technology address them?
Giles Peeters
There is a growing realization that solutions developed for industrial warfare aren’t suitable for conflicts fought amongst the people. Intra-community warfare in remote regions requires new tools that militaries just don’t have. When I was in the MoD, BLOS comms was always at the top of the list of urgent operational requirements. This is because MILSATCOM availability is limited—even the Americans rely on commercial providers for around 80 percent of their satellite capability.
The other problem is the cost associated with this type of communication. MILSATCOM capability is extremely expensive. While commercial providers might not be able to provide as much satellite bandwidth, they can offer militaries huge increases in capability for a fraction of the price.
MSM
Is commercial satellite technology proving popular in the military sector?
Giles Peeters
In a word, yes. The only element holding it back is a concern regarding security. This is where the solution provider has to step up. Everything we pipe across communications networks through our SCC Titan solution, from positional data to text messages, is AES256 encrypted.
The other side of the security coin is all about solution sovereignty. Militaries naturally aren’t keen to share backend resources with other militaries, allied or not. However, this is easily solved by providing server solutions that sit within military organizations, thus ensuring total data control and integrity.
MSM
Do you see commercial technology making even further inroads into the military sector in future?
I absolutely see this as being the case. You’ve only got to consider the recent announcements from the Pentagon regarding the suitability of Enterprise Service 10 on BlackBerry’s Z10 and Q10 smartphones and PlayBook tablets, as well as Knox on Samsung’s Galaxy S4, to get an understanding of how far commercial tech’s already come.
Smartphones are powerful, and the apps they’re now capable of running offer advanced BFT capability. In line with this, we’ve developed a command and control smartphone app called SMART24 with encryption.
It’s also common knowledge that some of the commercial software out there is first-class. Take Google Maps for example. I honestly can’t see another company surpassing the levels of detail and complexity that Google has already managed—therefore, the question for the military sector becomes, “How can we put this to work for us?”, service providers that can provide answers to this now have a captive, interested audience to sell to.
MSM
What regions of the world are most interested in COTS BLOS tracking situational command and control?
Giles Peeters
I’m sure our competitors would love to know that! The regions BLOS blue force tracking technology, at the moment, are the ones in which only a basic comms infrastructure exists and are often countries protecting vast areas of territory that need flexible communications. If we can go into these territories and help organizations quickly increase their situational command and control capability, then commanders make more informed decisions that result in increased personnel safety and operational success.
MSM
How do you see the SCC Titan solution evolving over the same time period?
We’re still educating this new market regarding situational awareness and what such really means. As we do this, our customers feed information back to us on their requirements and we develop our solution accordingly. This is how we envisage the SCC Titan solution developing over the next five years and this will ensure our solutions continue to offer fit for purpose capability for current military operations.
MSM
Will we see the military using smaller satellites, such as nanos and picos, for ISR missions and for BLOS acquisition, given this platform’s lower manufacturing and launch costs?
Giles Peeters
The priority has been to get core satellite infrastructure with large bandwidth up and running for BLOS voice comms. Now that that’s been realized, militaries can start thinking about smaller, more sophisticated SATCOM technology and how it can be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Innovative M2M BLOS satellite use has seen our Whisper device evaluated for UAV coordination and ECM C2.
MSM
What SATCOM technologies do you believe will truly become comms and intelligence assets for the military over the next year or so?
Giles Peeters
An increased use of small commercial ‘spy’ satellites on elliptic orbits, and commercial satellite imagery, is to be expected. Providers able to supply near real-time detailed satellite imagery of any region in the world will find their services in high demand. Military use of COTS satellite solutions is increasing because they’re cost effective and the private sector invests heavily in R&D.
MSM
Finally, given your wealth of experience in this industry and in the military, when you look back on your career, what projects bring you a true sense of satisfaction?
Giles Peeters
The project that immediately comes to mind is the introduction of BLOS voice comms into MoD helicopters in 2005/6 for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. This use of commercial technology to solve an urgent operational requirement is the inspiration behind SCC Titan.