Can 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…

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Like the Maytag Repair Man

XTAR’s X-Band Service Reputation for Dependability & Lack of Interference Can Make Our Payload Operations Technicians a Little Lonely Let me start off by saying XTAR is a tremendous place to work, the missions are exciting, the people are inspiring, the applications are fascinating, and above all, I work with an excellent team. Technically, my…

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What’s Broken? Actionable Improvements for DoD SATCOM Acquisition

Bureaucracies move slowly – DoD being no exception. Rules originally put in place for good reason sometimes become outdated and counterproductive. The world has changed. Satellites, and commercial SATCOM specifically, are now an essential – not merely supplemental, but ESSENTIAL – part of the military operational capability. Over the past 10 years or more, commercial…

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Space Architecture: Commercial Investment Requires Commitment from DoD

In recent years, DoD has been concerned about the “vulnerability” of commercial spacecraft and has imposed Information Assurance (IA) criteria onto satellite operators. DoD is now discussing what they see as a significant lack of “protection features” such as anti-jam capabilities, beam-forming technologies and other items that might make commercial satellites look more like military…

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Commercial X-band for Solutions Integrators – Looking Beyond MILSAT Systems

X-band is a satellite communication frequency reserved solely for military and government use. The benefits of X-band include lower probability of interference, high throughput and efficiency. Far too often, we run across the common misperception that the only available sources of X-band are government-owned MILSAT fleets. However, X-band is also available commercially making it, hands…

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Why 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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Pentagon May Defer Launches of 2 Wideband Communications Satellites

Space News – WASHINGTON — Facing a budget crunch that has it scouring all possibilities for near-term cost savings, the U.S. Defense Department’s space leadership is considering deferring the launches of two wideband communications satellites currently under construction, including one that is being paid for by a consortium of U.S. allies, according to multiple sources.

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Solutions to Manage the Expanding Volume of ISR Data

I recently read that approximately ninety percent of the total data in the world was created in just the last two years alone.  The DoD itself has an inconceivable amount of data from streaming video. The intelligence community finds itself inundated as data collection far outpaces analysis. Our industry is seeking ways to support efficient…

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