While a lot has been made about the potential consumer use of LEO satellites, the dependence of Ukraine on SpaceX’s Starlink is a bellwether for future defense applications for satellite constellations, speakers at the MilSat Symposium in Mountain View, CA said last week, according to Space News. For example, the U.S. Air Force was inspired by Starlink’s success in Ukraine to award the LEO satellite company a 12-month, $1.92 million contract to support its operations in Europe and Africa in late July, according to Politico.
Speakers from OneWeb, Inmarsat, and Kymeta said their companies are also looking to tap the defense market for growth.
OneWeb combines satellites and terrestrial infrastructure to provide interoperable solutions for governments and agencies around the world. “OneWeb serves all departments, including armed forces, peacekeeping, emergency responders, intelligence and security agencies,” according to a company statement.
Aviation Week reported in May that the U.S. military had begun testing OneWeb and Starlink for communications from remote outposts in the Arctic. Late in 2021, Airbus and OneWeb expanded their partnership to provide connectivity for European defense and security forces.
Armed forces have the need for on-demand and always-on connectivity for real-time access to mission critical data and information in remote battlefield environments.
In April, Kymeta began a partnership with OneWeb Technologies to offer mission-critical LEO satellite connectivity services to the government market. The managed satellite service offering enables Kymeta to provide government customers with hardware solutions that are packaged with secure and resilient network access from OneWeb, which supplements Kymeta’s existing broadband geostationary orbit and 4G cellular service offering.
Kymeta says it offers agnostic networks, and critical infrastructure backups where its terminals can serve as a wireless access point for a military team on the ground, giving the whole crew access whether they are at the base camp or actively engaged in an incident.
Earlier this month, the Defense Information Systems Agency awarded Inmarsat with a $980M, 10-year contract to provide broadband satellite services for the U.S. Navy. Under the contract, Inmarsat will deliver worldwide managed telecommunications services. Those include satellite capabilities via Inmarsat Global Xpress Ka-band, as well as C-, Ku- and X-band frequencies, for mobile and fixed satellite services on crewed and uncrewed maritime, airborne and ground platforms.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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