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UK Purchases Another Skynet 5 Military Comms Satellite

Paradigm, a wholly owned subsidiary of Astrium Services, has inked a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to extend and enhance the Skynet 5 private finance initiative (PFI) programme. This will involve the production, launch, test and operation of a fourth satellite, Skynet 5D, and the extension of the Skynet 5 contract by two years until 2022.

The contract extension will guarantee UK MOD additional capacity on the Skynet 5 constellation.

Eric Beranger, CEO of Astrium Services informed: “The Skynet 5 programme was a pioneering step in the provision of milsatcoms via a commercial operator. In the past six years we have not only met the exacting requirements of UK MoD, but have also provided a comprehensive and flexible service to allied nations worldwide.

“The demand for a fourth Skynet 5 satellite demonstrates the growing global demand for the services we can offer and proves that we have successfully implemented a truly innovative approach to milsatcom procurement.”

Since 2003, the groundbreaking Skynet 5 programme, managed by Paradigm, has provided UK MoD with a suite of highly robust, reliable and secure military communications services, supporting operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

The programme commenced by using the legacy Skynet 4 satellites and then augmenting them with a fully refurbished ground network before launching the Skynet 5A, 5B, and 5C satellites between 2007 and 2008.

The Skynet 5 PFI programme has been a huge operational success for the UK MOD, and has reduced or removed many of the technical and service risks, whilst ensuring unrivalled secure satcoms to UK forces and the best value for money for UK MOD.

Over the past six years, the continued success of the programme has acted as a catalyst for an increase in satcoms usage and the introduction of a fourth satellite will satisfy these increasing future capacity requirements.

The extra capacity will ensure that British and allied troops have instant access to the necessary communication resources when and where needed most.

The introduction of additional Milsatcom capacity to the Skynet 5 fleet also means that Paradigm will continue to have the ability to address the needs of a growing international Milsatcom market. Since 2003, Paradigm has supported the Milsatcom requirements of NATO, the USA, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

The Czech Republic, Slovenia and Norway have also recently signed up to have access to Paradigm’s Skynet capacity. The introduction of the additional Skynet 5D satellite will increase the communications capability for coalition and allied forces in regional hotspots. Allied nations will have guaranteed access to capacity on 5D, particularly in the UHF frequency band, which is currently in great demand from military forces.

Malcolm Peto, Director of Paradigm informed: “The contract extension for 5D is testament to the strong working partnership we have with UK MOD. Since the inception of the Skynet 5 programme we have been fully committed to providing them with the highest standard of service that has the flexibility, security and reliability they require.

“Skynet 5D demonstrates the success of this programme from both an industrial and military perspective, enabling us to consolidate the service delivery to UK MOD and also to expand the communication capabilities we can offer on a worldwide basis.”

The Skynet 5 system, including the satellites and ground segment, was designed and built by Astrium. The 5D payload is already complete, having been built as a risk reduction of the existing programme ahead of any potential requirement for a fourth Skynet 5 satellite, and work will now begin to complete the 5D satellite, in time for a scheduled launch in 2013.

The Skynet 5 satellites are based on Astrium’s highly successful Eurostar E3000 series. When the current Skynet 5 constellation became fully operational in 2008 it was the start of a new era in military communications, using some of the most complex Milsatcom satellites ever built.

The Skynet 5 satellites have the highest powered X-band transponders in orbit, a highly flexible uplink beam configuration, coupled with a world leading anti-jamming antenna to ensure that the constellation is extremely effective against hostile or non-hostile interference.

All of the downlink beams are fully steerable and the whole payload is optimized to maximise performance for small, rapidly deployable satellite ground terminals on land, sea or air.

Navy Thinks About Backup Plans After Another MUOS Delay

The U.S. Navy informed it will not start launching its next-generation MUOS communications satellites until September 2011.

As a result, military space officials are racing to develop several options to diminish a pending gap in critical tactical mobile communications.

The Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS, satellites will replace an aging mix of obsolete military satellites. Managers estimate narrowband communications capabilities will “degrade below the required level of availability” by January 2011. Without mitigations, the narrowband capacity would remain unacceptably low until the first MUOS satellite is ready for operations, according to the Government Accountability Office.

But U.S. troops will have to wait nearly a year longer than expected due to difficulties in MUOS satellite development.

“MUOS is in the midst of another delay,” informed Navy Vice Adm. David Dorsett, deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance.

“Last year, you were informed that MUOS was going to be delayed about 11 months,” Dorsett said the Senate Armed Forces Committee’s Subcommittee on Strategic Forces during a Wednesday hearing. “It looks like our estimate at this point is that the first MUOS satellite now is expected to be launched in September 2011, with an on-orbit capability in December 2011. That’s about a 10-month delay from what you were briefed previously.”

The MUOS program will consist of four operational satellites and one on-orbit spare. The spacecraft are built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

In prepared testimony, Dorsett and Gary Federici, a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy, said the military’s narrowband satellite communications constellation currently includes eight UHF Follow-On, or UFO, spacecraft, two residual previous generation Fleet Satellites, the LEASAT 5 platform launched in 1990, and leased capacity on the United Kingdom’s Skynet 5C satellite.

Once launched, MUOS satellites will provide “worldwide tactical narrowband netted, point-to-point, and broadcast voice and data services in challenging environments include double canopy foliage, urban environments, high sea states, and all weather conditions,” according to Dorsett and Federici’s testimony.

The spacecraft are also designed for mobile communications with hand-held terminals, UAVs, missiles, aircraft and remote sensors.

Navy officials are considering commercial solutions to ensure warfighters experience no communications outages.

“Looking at a commercially-hosted payload is the right approach,” Dorsett informed. “It reduces the risk that we otherwise would have. Last year, we made a decision that we could afford more risk. With the additional delay of MUOS, we made a decision that no longer could afford that risk.”

Dorsett, also the Director of Naval Intelligence, said more MUOS delays without mitigations would place “the entire joint force at a level of risk that, frankly, would not be appropriate.”
“We really want to explore that [commercial] option,” Federici told the Senate panel. “It could be a hosted for a lease, or it could be a purchase.”

Opening up part of the UHF spectrum reserved for government use would be beneficial to commercial operators and should be “part of the calculation,” Dorsett said.
A mysteriously secretive U.S. government satellite named PAN launched in September was the source of much speculation linked to the potential gap between heritage narrowband satellites and the delayed MUOS program.

Some observers concluded PAN, which is based on a commercial Lockheed Martin satellite bus, may be designed to bridge the gap between the two systems, particularly in the Middle East region. But no military or civilian government agency claimed ownership of PAN, a rare circumstance in recent space history.

The Navy is developing and implementing other options to optimize communications capacity on existing satellites, including reconfiguring the UHF payload on the newest UFO spacecraft to increase the number of channels available for use. The military may also lease another narrowband channel on a SICRAL communications satellite owned by the Italian government.

Officials are also pursuing upgrades to ground terminals and seeking a bandwidth-sharing deal with Australia. The experimental TacSat 4 mobile communications satellite may also deliver some limited narrowband capacity after its launch in late 2010.

MTN Satellite Communications Has Chosen Ipico Technology For Cruise Industry Solution

IPICO Inc. informed that it has entered into an exclusive letter of intent with Maritime Telecommunications Network, Inc. (MTN), a global service provider of communications, connectivity and content services to remote locations around the world, respecting the distribution of an integrated solution co-developed by IPICO and MTN for people-tracking applications on maritime vessels using IPICO’s IP-X based tag and reader technology and MTN’s proprietary software.

MTN services over 500 vessels and land-based terminals, including cruise ships, government and military vessels, private yachts, ferries, offshore drilling and production sites, and commercial ships. Through MTN’s global VSAT satellite network, the company delivers reliable and cost-effective services to most of the major cruise lines around the world. According to the 2009 cruise market overview report from Cruise Lines International Association, Inc. (CLIA), the North American cruise ship market consists at present of more than 185 ships with a total capacity of more than 275,000 passengers.

“This large and immediate opportunity continues to validate IPICO’s investment in its innovative core technology”, stated Gorden Westwater, President and CEO of IPICO. “MTN’s established position and reach in the maritime sector, and its impressive engineering capability, in combination with IPICO’s leading IP-X technology, creates a very unique and powerful passenger and personnel safety solution to be offered to the global cruise ship market.”

It is expected that the product will be showcased for demonstrations at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping show in Miami later this month. IPICO has received the first purchase order and anticipates beginning to fill orders this summer with initial installations on the first cruise ships this fall. Mr. Westwater also informed that “We are confident that executing this letter of intent with MTN will enable the acceleration of IPICO’s supply capabilities.”

Jonathan Weintraub, Chief Executive Officer of MTN, stated “We look forward to working closely with our partner IPICO to develop and bring to market a state-of-the-art system that will enhance the security and safety for passengers and crew on modern cruise ships.”

About IPICO Inc.

IPICO Inc. is an RFID solution supplier with operations in Canada, USA, South Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. IPICO produces smart labels and tags based on the IP-X communication protocol. IPICO’s low interference readers are designed to meet regulatory requirements in many major markets, and allow for multi-reader rollout in close proximity. IPICO’s low cost RFID products excel at long read range, fast multi-read anti-collision and high thru-beam read-speeds of dynamic tag populations. These products are used to optimize the management of items, people, animals and processes within the logistic supply chain and other value chains.