High-Speed Internet for Movin’ Military
Is this the future of acquisition procedures for the U.S. government’s satcom needs?
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that the U.S. Defense Department has formed an unusual partnership with Intelsat Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., and private investors to bring high speed internet connections to military units on the go:
The demonstration project requires private investors led by a fledgling private-equity fund to shoulder the entire cost of a networking system for directing messages, a sort of Internet router in the sky for soldiers and intelligence gatherers…..
Private investors are gambling that the U.S. military will make long-term commitments to support technical breakthroughs and new acquisition procedures….
Claire Fairfield, managing director of venture fund Concerto Advisors Inc., said his group is looking to raise as much as $200 million to fund four total satellites involving Intelsat or other commercial operators.
Cisco top executive for the program, Rick Sanford, says the project is "really a business approach, not a government program." By acting like a consumer, the DoD hopes to overcome the delays and cost overruns that have frustrated their more traditional attempts to meet the military’s soaring demand for satellite IP connections. (Cisco is providing software integration for the project.)
By developing and deploying such technology in about two years — dramatically faster than traditional military-satellite programs — such shared commercial-government payloads could pave the way for providing lower-cost, more flexible digital-communications links to fighting forces and intelligence operatives in the field. If successful, the model also will help the military, along with users of navigation, homeland-security and other civilian applications better coordinate future satellite needs.
In this case, "We get to test something for a fraction of what it would cost" if the Air Force funded it, said Mike Florio, the military’s lead manager for the program. "And we’ve got some stars of industry trying to make this work."
The deal marks another milestone in Intelsat’s history. Intelsat was established in 1964 by 11 countries as an international intergovernmental agency to provide satellite services to member countries; by 1973, more than 80 countries had joined the consortium. In 2001, Intelsat became a private company, opening up new avenues of business — including deals like this one with the DoD. Still, vestigal problems remain from its days as the satcom provider to a broad spectrum of political organizations (see here and here, as well as this odd entanglement between Sri Lanka, Amnesty International, and the International Cricket Council (whose Cricket World Cup is taking place now.)
As in the civilian world, the U.S. military’s need for faster and more reliable IP communications has grown exponentially as the convergence between IP technology and two-way and broadcast communications accelerates. AMERICOM Government Services’ C2OTM (Comms-on-the-Move, pictured above) for example, provides "real time support for a full range of IP applications including VOIP, two way video surveillance, warfighter coordination tools such as common operational perspective and force tracking, and a full range of logistics and training applications" by integrating with ArcLight(r) modem technology from ViaSat.
