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Advances in military technology such as unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAV), real time video surveillance, networked communication systems, real time targeting and battlefield mapping are demanding much more capacity in satellite communications than is available today. A large amount of data needs to be transmitted in real time and via secure and protected communication systems, further compounding the capacity problem. In the Middle East conflicts, the military realized its lack of communications capacity was a critical issue and has used commercial systems to help carry the load. The current fleet of military communications satellites uses technology that is more than a decade old except for the two WGS satellites recently launched. The need to expand the capacity of these systems is great, but it is difficult to accomplish quickly due to the cost and long lead times to approve, build and launch systems.

Satellite communications play a vital role in providing voice and data to the warfighter and strategic command. The initial trend was for the military to use commercially available bandwidth to offset its demands. But with future militaries using a network-centric architecture that will integrate information from many sources and direct them in real time to the appropriate locations, it is clear they need additional dedicated and secure capacity. Future warfighter communication systems will be small, light and low enough in cost to allow most soldiers to carry their own communication devices and transmit monitored data collected from their individual sensors. Real time video is growing into wide use with various devices and sensors available in the field and on UAVs. Other surveillance sensors along with battlefield mapping and targeting data are quickly pushing the demand for more bandwidth in current and future systems at an astounding rate.

Microwave Journal surveyed some of the companies in our industry who supply components and subsystems to the satellite communications market about their participation in programs, new products and trends in the industry. Responding to our questions were Cobham Defense, Ducommun, e2v, Jersey Microwave, Microsemi, Micronetics, MITEQ and Xicom.