Assured Communications 2016

A basic tenet of building an expeditionary fighting force that can respond to hot spots around the world is the ability to surge. That applies to satellite bandwidth as much as it does to personnel and weaponry. Such bandwidth is needed for ISR assets such as unmanned aircraft systems, for communications and for situational awareness. That bandwidth can’t always be acquired at the last moment, however, and needs to be pre-positioned in the form of dedicated, hosted payloads or in contracts with industry that account for the use of additional bandwidth.

At the same time, there is a requirement to ensure that satellites have the ability to protect themselves in contested environments in order to provide crucial bandwidth.