Ric VanderMeulen is the Vice President of Government Satcom at ViaSat Inc. and he leads the Company’s efforts to transition commercial broadband network-centric satcom architectures and products to the government market. The group is developing the nexgen Government standard Satcom Modem and is integrating systems for DoD deployments in multiple theaters worldwide. Mr. VanderMeulen is working with the major DoD acquisition centers including the U.S. Army PEO EIS and PEO C3T, the U.S.A.F. ESC, the U.S. Navy PEO C4I & Space, DISA, and the OSD NII. He joined ViaSat in 2001. Previously, he served as Director, Business Development for Connexion by Boeing, where he led the venture development for this new high-speed Internet and Intranet data service for mobile travelers. In this role he also led the strategic planning for commercial new ventures for the Boeing Space and Communication Group.

MilsatMagazine
Thank you for your time, Mr. VanderMeulen... would you please give our readers a rundown of your background and what your responsibilities are as the vice president and general manager of ViaSat Government Satcom Systems as well as the areas of responsibility for your department?

Ric VanderMeulen
First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts about military Satcom.

I’ve been with ViaSat since 2001, working with an extremely capable group of people. Our focus is on delivering mission critical utility to deployed users while minimizing the total system cost. The constantly growing user demand for ever-increasing communication capacity requires ever-increasing capacity at the lowest possible cost.

Our Government Satcom Systems group has been successful in transitioning ViaSat commercial broadband Satcom architectures and products to the government market. We’ve been pretty successful with that, beginning with our UHF and LinkwayS2 networking systems and continuing with next-generation military standard Satcom and network Satcom developments such as the Enhanced Bandwidth Efficient Modem, Joint IP Modem, Blue Force Tracking 2, and new capabilities such as communications-on-the-move.

I have been quite fortunate in having the opportunity to be involved through the inception and evolution of military Satcom. I started my career as a design engineer at Rockwell Collins working on some of the first mobile Satcom systems for UHF AFSATCOM, Milstar 1 and 2, UHF Follow-on, and FleetSat satellites. I was also able to work in various management, business, and corporate development positions in communication networking. These included commercial and military terrestrial and satellite communications. I also spent time at the Boeing Company where I led a team that defined the capability for new commercial ventures including what became Connexion by Boeing, the first airborne broadband system for commercial airliners. Collectively, these experiences provided me exposure to a broad range of customer needs, technology, and market forces that I use now to position us to understand the ever-increasing demand for communication capacity and the continual need to find ever-more efficient ways to deliver it.

MilsatMagazine
Are you working with other government entities outside of the United States, given ViaSat’s commercial global responsibilities? Are you are also engaged in developing business with NGOs, agencies, and military organizations?

Ric VanderMeulen
The need to be able to access networks is universal. You clearly see it in the business environment as well at the park or coffee house. The need for deployed work forces to have broadband access while deployed or in transit expands into non-military United States Government agencies, NGOs, and entities outside the United States. We are working on many of these opportunities.

MilsatMagazine
What are your lead projects for ViaSat? Please outline those projects and what is to be accomplished?

Ric VanderMeulen
The commonality of our projects is communication and network communication efficiency. Sometimes the word efficiency gets over used, but if we can deliver almost limitless connectivity, where and whenever it is needed, at a cost basis that is equivalent to terrestrial services, we will have accomplished that goal.< br />
Our lead projects include creating new levels of Satcom throughput, capacity, and connectivity, including tactical mesh (any-to-any) networking, the joint IP net-centric open standard system, the next generation of mobile Satcom technology, and improvements in Battle Command systems such as Blue Force Tracking.

MilsatMagazine
How is your division involved with such programs as C-MNF, FHRN, SNAP, SWAN and WIN-T? Could you tell us a little bit about each of these programs and why they are beneficial to the warfighter?

Ric VanderMeulen
All of these programs are part of the rapid transition from pre-positioned telephony-based communication systems to “everything-over-IP” always-on network communications. The concept is to get access to the Global Information Grid (GIG) or fiber world as quickly as possible. Teleport and FHRN entry points get the deployed systems integrated into the SIPRNET and NIPRNET as soon as they pause, and, in some cases, while they are on the move.

We are one of the many technology partners making these programs happen. The transition to network-centric IP-based communication, from the user baseband, through the security devices, through the satellite network, and into the GIG, has happened at an unprecedented rate. Such could not occur without the cooperation of the technology partners.

We (the U.S. Army, U.S.N, and U.S.M.C. acquisition centers, R&D centers, and battle labs; other Government organizations such as DISA and OSD NII; and then industry participants, including the integrators and technology partners) have deployed and are operating four to five times more Satcom deployable terminals in the past four years than where deployed and operated in the preceding 20-30 years.

MilsatMagazine
One of the applications of the GPS system being used by the U.S. military is known as Blue Force Tracking — how do ViaSat products aid in transmitting the information upon which military commanders can make trusted, in-theater decisions, based upon the data they receive?

Ric VanderMeulen
We are working with the Army FBCB2 Program Office and their lead system contractor Northrop Grumman Missions Systems on the 2G communication architecture for Blue Force Tracking. We are leading the design of the satellite upgrade networking part of BFT2 for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. One of the things we do best is increasing the capacity of satellite channels at the lowest possible cost. In this case, we are using our ArcLight spread spectrum technology to enable the capacity increase, which translates to much faster location updates and throughput for eight times as many messages at any one time. One recent demo showed 45 times faster data transfer and information update intervals cut to about 2 seconds compared to 10 minutes for the first generation system. Imagine how much more accurate the system will be in showing locations of everyone in a battlespace.

MilsatMagazine
When considering ViaSat’s LinkWay system for milcom projects, one of the terms used in describing the LinkwayS2 sat modem is full mesh — would you describe this technology and why it is so important to the military? How does the modem offer or include the critical need for secure communications?

Ric VanderMeulen
Imagine a piece is important data, maybe a live feed from a UAV. If that information is sent to a centralized location and then it is redistributed into the theater, you get twice the delay. In addition, you use the satellite twice. The satellite is by far the most expensive capital infrastructure element in this communication path. Using it twice and delaying the data does not help the military. Instead, sending it with a mesh (any-to-any) satellite network modem, the military gains the time advantage of a single satellite hop and they gain the ability to use the satellite capacity for more missions.

There are two major transponder-based satellite network architectures. One has a central hub or gateway that all traffic in the network must pass through. In this architecture, traffic returning to the theater requires two satellite “hops”; up and down from the sending terminal to the hub and a second hop from the hub to the receiving terminal. The second architecture uses a mesh system, in which all terminals can communicate directly with any other terminal in the network. That is an advantage when you have a large amount of traffic staying with the theater. That is the advantage for the Joint Network Node (JNN), WIN-T Increment 1, and SWAN programs.

MilsatMagazine
Is the LinkWayS2 also backwards compatible with previous modem series? Why is the LinkWayS2 system such an improvement over previous models?

Ric VanderMeulen
Yes, the new LinkWayS2 includes an operating mode that makes it backwards compatible with LinkWay 2100 terminals.

Many of the improvement comes from the DVB standard. The DVB-S2 ACM feature reduces satellite bandwidth requirements by as much as 63 percent for the downstream (hub to remotes) traffic. But we also implement several new technologies that improve performance beyond the standard. For example, our ViaSat-proprietary Dynamic Link Adaptation reduces required bandwidth for the upstream by up to 18 percent. And we focus just as much on the performance of specific applications. That’s what customers want. So we’ve added technology that enables those familiar applications and networking features to perform just as they would on a terrestrial network.

MilsatMagazine
What is the future of DAMA technology on UHF satellites? How does ViaSat play into this arena?

Ric VanderMeulen
There’s still an important role for UHF DAMA. It is one of the only true global networks available to the military. With its constellation of satellites and four network control sites, you can reach virtually anywhere on the planet. That’s not the case with X-, Ku- or Ka-band, where you can connect only to another user under the same satellite beam. Simultaneously, every military user wants more bandwidth and throughput. ViaSat is at work on enhancements to UHF that will enable more users to access the system, access it more easily, and gain higher throughput for new applications that require better performance. That program is the Integrated Waveform (IW), part of the Department of Defense (DoD) Standardization Program. IW is designed to prolong the life of UHF DAMA satcom through a series of network upgrades.

MilsatMagazine
How is ViaSat involved in communications-on-the-move (COTM)? Are there any current in-theater operations using the ViaSat equipment? Do you see COTM as a major service push with new projects potential over the next year or two?

Ric VanderMeulen
The Arclight system we’ve been talking about is also an ideal system for COTM. On the commercial side, ViaSat has the first FCC approved Ku-band system for mobile satellite communications. It’s already flying on over 75 business aircraft and has logged over 100,000 hours of flight time. It’s also being sold by our partner KVH Industries for maritime applications, and we’re working with KVH to expand that network to near global coverage by the end of 2009.

How does that relate to the military? They can tap into the same global network for comms on-the-move. All the same advantages — small antennas, lower cost, higher speed, reliable mobile access — apply to DoD applications too. We’ve already demonstrated it on military vehicles with great results. And a number of systems are being used on C-130 aircraft for Special Operations forces.

The other part of the question is more complicated. There’s no doubt it works and Ku-band bandwidth is far less costly and higher capacity than other mobile broadband systems. But we have yet to see great demand for COTM by the military. They aren’t certain how much they really need it. Is there major potential? Absolutely. Will it happen? We don’t really know.

MilsatMagazine
Is ViaSat involved in the UAV/UAS communication sectors? If not, are there any plans to enter this arena?

Ric VanderMeulen
In 2006, we acquired a dynamic small company named Enerdyne that is bringing new digital video links to this market. That EnerLinks digital technology, plus a number of other Enerdyne technology improvements, greatly increases the video quality and operational range for the UAS market. Enerdyne already had a great core business in classified applications and is now establishing itself as a key player for all UAS video links.

MilsatMagazine
What do you see as among the most important technological considerations for our military and government organizations over the next few years? How will ViaSat address those areas? Looking forward, what do you see as ViaSat’s major thrusts for 2009 in the government and military communication environments?

Ric VanderMeulen
Fundamentally, ViaSat competes by applying advanced new technologies that are more cost effective than those used by competitors — who are more often than not much more established players. We’ve been fortunate enough to be successful several times with this approach, notably in our original defense markets for UHF-band satellite terminals, complex communication environment simulation, then with MIDS, and again in the Information Assurance market for Type 1 Internet Protocol security. Each of those has been an enduring and profitable “franchise” type market segment. We’re now working to extend our reach in defense communications to information assurance in space, and video data links for small tactical UAVs.

There seem to be several procurement trends that play to our strengths. First is the military implementation of commercial products to save costs and shorten acquisition cycles, rather than funding major new R&D programs. The second is Navy, Marine, and Army communication and information system upgrades. And, finally, an increased emphasis on Special Operations. We think all of these elements are nicely targeted within ViaSat’s sweet spot.