Although the military already depends on commercial suppliers for the vast majority of its communications bandwidth, it is expected that industry-supplied bandwidth will play an even greater role as U.S. foreign and military strategy pivots toward Asia and communication needs grow.
"The use of the commercial bandwidth is really going to explode in the next several years," said Matt Collins, advanced programs manager for Harris Corp.'s government communications systems division in Melbourne, Florida. "The mission needs it; everybody is demanding situational awareness and a lot of data at the edge."
Two key tactical network programs make "robust use" of commercial satellite bandwidth providers: the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) and the Blue Force Tracker (BFT) efforts, said Paul Mehney, chief of strategic initiatives at Army Program Executive Office Command Control Communications in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. "All WIN-T programs were designed to use commercial bandwidth [Ku] as well as military bandwidth [Ka], based on availability," he said. "The BFT1 and BFT2 systems both use commercial L-band satcom."
To date, WIN-T bandwidth has been primarily available only from commercial satellite providers, Mehney said. But that situation is now changing. "With the deployment of the Wideband Global SATCOM [WGS] System, military Ka and X bands have started to be used for operations and, in some cases, used in training," Mehney said. "Although, military Ka time is still a limited resource until WGS reaches its full capacity, and access to it is governed by mission priorities, cost constraints have made military time more attractive in order save significant amounts of funding that can be used for other priorities."
Due to the rapid growth of BFT fielding and related factors, including size, weight and power, the system continues to rely on commercial satellite bandwidth. "Studies have been conducted for use of X band and [ultra high frequency], but neither can fully meet the BFT requirements," Mehney said.
Asia pivot
With U.S. policy now pivoting toward Asia, the DoD is considering its bandwidth options and costs. Yet, as planners begin searching for commercial bandwidth to serve troops in the region, they might find only limited amounts of commercial satellite bandwidth available.
Skot Butler, vice president of satellite networks and space services for Intelsat General, noted that the Asian satellite market is currently dominated by small national and regional service providers, a situation that discourages global operators from dedicating satellites to the region. "If the demand in the Pacific were to spike anything like what it did in Southwest Asia, it would be much, much harder for the commercial satellite industry to have that sort of capacity available overnight," he said.
Mehney, however, feels that the situation will be manageable using existing service contracts. "The DISA Future Commercial Satellite Communications Services Acquisition contract offers emergency line item numbers that could provide global satcom coverage within days of the contract modification," he said. "This was employed recently in support of Operational United Assistance, when Blue Force Tracker 1 and 2 capability was quickly needed in West Africa."
Transition plans
Meheny said that to control costs the Army would prefer to use military satellite bandwidth whenever possible. "Although [a] commercial approach does allow for greater flexibility ... it remains costly to employ, with some programs having to execute a logistics plan to account for use of hardware for both commercial and military bands," he said.
WIN-T will continue to utilize both commercial and military satellite times as needed, Mehney said. "Although, use of military Ka band is relatively newer to some units, the likely usage will increase over time as familiarity with processes, procedures and network performance increases," he said. WIN-T is also working with various Army organizations to facilitate the transition, on a larger scale, from commercial to military bands use, Mehney noted.
The BFT program has managed to reduce overall L band outlays and continues to implement efficiencies, Mehney noted.
