Increasing Decisive Advantage: the X-band UAV

UAV operators and acquisition offices take note: not all beyond-line-of-sight UAVs are made the same. A certain breed, namely X-band UAVs, are far ahead of the rest in terms of all-weather, go anywhere, anytime can-do ISR and weapons delivery capability. And they offer less radio frequency (RF) interference to surrounding operations, and can do it…

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U.S. Military Satellite Communications: Taking the High Ground with X-band SATCOM

On Saturday, March 18, the Department of Defense successfully launched the ninth of ten military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) satellites known as Wideband Global SATCOM – Nine (WGS-9) into orbit, bringing significantly more X-band and Ka-band SATCOM capacity into the hands of the U.S. Department of Defense and the militaries of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the…

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Satellite Communications and Security Cooperation: Achieving All-Weather Global Resiliency, Interoperability, and Affordability – by Working with WGS

Background.  On December 7, 2016, the US Air Force launched the 8th of 10 planned Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellites into orbit, from Cape Canaveral in Florida.  This latest WGS satellite marks a technological leap forward for the WGS constellation, bringing more X- (and Ka-band) capacity to the Department of Defense.  X-band is also an…

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Small UAVs: Overcoming SWaP Limitations with Smaller, Lighter, High-Throughput X-band SATCOM Terminals

Have you wondered what trends in business ultimately will be successful, and which are just flashes in the pan?  Look no further than everyday cell phones, the success of which is largely due to countless improvements overcoming Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) limitations of previous generations of cell phones and computing devices.  Not surprisingly, the UAV market faces the…

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Does NATO Care Whether Britain is in the EU or Not?

NATO is the most significant vehicle for trans-Atlantic and intra-European military-to-military cooperation ever established. With today’s ever-more-unstable geopolitics, NATO’s strategy and actions heavily preoccupy every military mind in Eastern Europe. Leaders wonder if these nations can continue as independent entities without the protection of NATO and maintain the balance of the EU in the face…

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Smaller, Lighter, Further: All-Weather, High Endurance Reconnaissance and the X-band UAV

Small UAV manufacturers, take note: your efforts to build smaller, lighter UAVs with longer range and higher endurance are not going unnoticed.  Time for a quick primer on what the established competition already knows: UAVs are Size, Weight and Power-limited (SWaP-limited) applications, and thus operate better in X-band – and the reason is simple physics involving (a) X-band’s…

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Tunnel Vision

Serving military and government users without distractions from the commercial marketplace The communications technology sector is fast paced, at times even chaotic, with new concepts perpetually in development. The satellite industry is no exception. As new antennas, higher throughput and many other products and services come online, companies look to capitalize on these innovations. Complicated…

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Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and X-band Satellite Communications (SATCOM): A Long Overdue Marriage of Sorts

The U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, authorized under Section 3 of the Arms Export Control Act, specifically authorizes the sale of defense articles and services to foreign military and government end users.  In a similar fashion, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has set aside certain bands of the Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum, most notably X-band,…

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