The X-Factor: A SATCOM Blog
MILSATCOM Problems? Don’t Repurchase, Repoint!
In the course of satellite communications architecture planning, like all military operations planning, it is always wise to have a main Course of Action (COA) and a fallback COA. As a main COA, all DoD program offices, acquisition activities, and J6 SATCOM planners should be purchasing equipment that is 100% compatible with the DoD’s own…
In the Arena with HTS
X-Band outperforms newcomers, including HTS Ku on SWaP-limited antennas Yesterday’s announcement by Gilat and Intelsat General of tests on Gilat’s BR 71 antenna is great news! Really. Why would an X-band satellite operator say this? Because every technical advancement forces all players to aim at a higher performance threshold, so with this small terminal, one…
Spotlight on Africa
AFRICA ENDEAVOR 2016 Leaders’ Forum focuses on improved strategic communications and C4 among and between partner nations and regional and international organizations
Take It With You!
Government users need to be accommodated with portability We all love to take our stuff with us, don’t we? Makes us more efficient. Makes us feel comfortable. Saves us from having to buy new things everywhere we go, right? Just think about how annoying it would be if you had to buy a new cell…
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…
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…
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…
Satellite Communications—today’s critical resource for protecting national security but it is so hard to get connected
Milsatcom and comsatcom should work together to meet today’s challenges This week commercial satellite communications industry members came together with leaders of the U.S. and allied military satellite community to streamline the milsatcom acquisition process to better protect U.S. space assets.
Clausewitz, Satellite Disaggregation, and Commercial Concealment as a Means towards Space Security
Next Week at MilSatCom USA, the Department of Defense and the commercial satellite industry will be looking at the challenges of defining and strengthening a future military space architecture. In planning for the future, it is often best to learn from the past. Let’s see what military strategist General Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) might suggest.…
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…