Posts Tagged ‘satellite industry’
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…
Read MoreSatellite 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…
Read MoreSmall 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…
Read MoreSmaller, 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…
Read MoreDoD Acquisition Reform, Silicon Valley Innovation, and What These Should Tell Us about the Future of Satellite Communications
After years of watching struggling defense acquisition reform initiatives while simultaneously lauding the agility, responsiveness, and successes of U.S. industry (perhaps most notably, Silicon Valley companies), it is clear that the Department of Defense needs to transition from a traditional “you-buy-it, you-live-with-it” military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) architecture towards an agile, responsive, commercial-based satellite communications (COMSATCOM) solution to meet our…
Read MoreForeign 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,…
Read MoreControl your own destiny
The satellite menu is a smorgasbord of options, particularly with the introduction in recent years of Ka-band. The search for effective Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) solutions for governments, particularly in this new world of ever-changing threats is fraught with misinformation and misperceptions. An effective solution is at your fingertips. You may not know about…
Read MoreTough Love for Africa
President Obama’s recent historic visit to Africa to pay tribute to his father’s land included a pledge of support and a commitment to future investment from the United States government. The issues of security and protection were common themes in his speeches, along with the need for increased development and forward progress. Obama highlighted the…
Read MoreCan the U.S. build business in Latin America?
For a few years now, I’ve been hearing how there are so many business opportunities in Latin America with Brazil at the top of the list. I hear how they are spending a lot of money on defense, space and security. And of course I hear about events like the World Cup in 2014 and…
Read MoreWhy Satellite Will Remain Relevant
Philip Harlow, XTAR President & COO, recently participated in the AIAA Space conference on the “Industry Executives” panel and the ICSSC Colloquium on the “Next Generation Broadband Satcom” panel. While I am quick to remind my colleagues from the satellite industry that satellites are not the end goal – we are simply an infrastructure that facilitates the…
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