Expanded focus – unleashing the potential of commercial SATCOM for defence

This In Conversation interview is brought to you by Shephard in partnership with Intelsat.

Commercial SATCOM is a game-changer for militaries, providing enhanced capabilities at a lower cost. As a key partner to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Intelsat has incorporated modern innovations in SATCOM, including multi-orbit systems and low-Earth orbit (LEO) technologies.

Furthermore, Intelsat continues to explore new ways to address the evolving needs of governments and militaries around the world, says Ray Lindenmayer, the company’s Director of Strategy Development, Government Solutions.

Intelsat operates the world’s largest integrated satellite and terrestrial network and is a global leader in providing multi-orbit, secure SATCOM solutions to the U.S. government, including SATCOM as a Managed Service (SaaMS) contracts.

This network consists of over 55 geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites, which follow the rotation of the Earth at 22,300 miles above the equator. However, to address the growing demand by governments and militaries for highly resilient all-domain communications and high-speed, low-latency connectivity for real-time applications, Intelsat has added low-Earth orbit (LEO) services to its GEO-based offerings.

In recent years, the commercial satellite industry has evolved rapidly to address the growing demand by the U.S. government for SATCOM solutions providing fibre-equivalent high speeds and low latencies. SES’s O3b mPOWER medium-Earth orbit (MEO) network is one example, along with the Starlink and Eutelsat OneWeb LEO networks.

A national asset

The DoD is paying close attention, explained Lindenmayer, with the Pentagon embracing the potential of the evolving space sector. This is perhaps best illustrated by its Commercial Space Integration Strategy, released in April 2024, which, according to the media release, “seeks to align the Department’s efforts and drive more effective integration of commercial space solutions into national security space architectures.”

“The DoD considers commercial satellite communications to be a critical component of its overall SATCOM architecture and, in certain contexts, a national asset,” Lindenmayer said. “Commercial SATCOM services – especially when integrated into managed service offerings and operated over DoD-owned terminals – are treated as DoD SATCOM resources, reflecting a broader policy shift toward leveraging commercial capabilities to enhance resilience, flexibility, and capacity in contested or degraded environments.”

Communications are one clear application. While there are certain areas – for example, nuclear missions – that are not going to be done on the commercial side, at a wider level “there’s no inherent risk in conducting more military mission communications over commercial SATCOM”, Lindenmayer added.

Beyond communications, he also pointed to space domain awareness as another critical role for commercial space. “The DoD is currently deploying new sensors and adversarial satellites, which will be very expensive,” explained Lindenmayer. “But it can be done orders of magnitude cheaper and delivered as a service by commercial industry.”

SATCOM as a service

There are a range of DoD programmes under way to tap the advantages of commercial SATCOM. For example, Lindenmayer pointed to the Protected Tactical SATCOM Global (PTS-G) programme, which aims to capitalise on commercial SATCOM speed and efficiency. The goal is to deliver four advanced satellites, along with the supporting ground infrastructure, for $500 million – roughly the price of a single satellite under the legacy Wideband Global SATCOM system.

Intelsat is partnering with other commercial companies to bid for the programme, he added. “That’s a challenge that Space Command has put out to commercial industry. They want the ability to take advantage of the new space industry that’s out there and get satellites up faster and cheaper. And they’ve given us 30 months to deliver it all,” said Lindenmayer. “That’s an extremely aggressive schedule.”

This is part of a broader trend towards “SATCOM as a service”, he noted, with companies like Intelsat providing the service required on an outsourced basis. “They don't have to reinvent the wheel. They can take advantage of what the commercial side is doing. They don't have to spend the money: they get the capabilities after the commercial team has invested its own R&D dollars.”

Lindenmayer also highlighted the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR), a Space Systems Command (SSC) programme focused on the use of hybrid military/commercial satellite networks. “That is a kind of insurance policy. If we get into a situation where the enemy is denying us comms for MILSATCOM, the military needs alternatives like commercial SATCOM to achieve its missions. That is a critical area.”

Multi-orbit resiliency

Satellites and their terrestrial architectures are also rapidly evolving technologically. Lindenmayer highlighted advances in electronically steerable array (ESA) antennas over the past decade, which have made high data rates available for military operators at much lower costs than previous options.

For instance, he pointed to Intelsat’s Multi-orbit Tactical Terminal (MOTT), available in two ruggedised variants, providing connectivity over GEO and LEO satellite networks. These terminal solutions are designed for ground missions requiring resilient, high-performing and secure satellite-enabled comms-on-the-move (COTM), with speeds up to 200+ Mbps and latencies below 70 milliseconds, largely outperforming traditional COTM solutions.

Multi-orbit connectivity will be another crucial enabler for militaries looking forward, Lindenmayer said. Each type of orbit offers its own distinctive advantages. “We want to take advantage of the flexibility, the redundancy of being able to use them at all orbits, and also the cost savings that have been brought in, specifically by LEO satellites.”

Such a multi-orbit capability requires investment in an enhanced networking system, including terminals on the ground, satellites and some sort of teleport or network infrastructure. However, it will be instrumental in delivering redundancy and resiliency. “That is absolutely critical to guaranteeing that your message gets sent” in comms missions, he emphasised.

Additionally, the use of geographically dispersed teleports and ground infrastructure, in combination with satellites in different orbits, means that “if one of them gets taken out, either by jamming or a kinetic effect, you can then switch automatically and use other forms of communication.”

Optical connectivity

Other areas of technological advance include optical connectivity, which is also a major focus for Intelsat. This technology will be “the biggest game-changer” for SATCOM in the coming years, Lindenmayer predicted, with the hardware having already been deployed in thousands of existing spacecraft for inter-satellite communications.

Lindenmayer noted that optical links offer roughly 500 times the usable spectrum of conventional radio frequency (RF), paving the way for future terabit-per-second throughput. Their narrow beams are also inherently difficult to detect or jam, providing warfighters with high-capacity connectivity that is both discreet and resilient.

Optical can also support further development of the “Internet of Space”, Lindenmayer added, enabling satellites to more easily share information and data between each other and across orbits, as well as from space to ground.

Gaining acceptance

There are a range of challenges to address to ensure that militaries gain the maximum advantage from commercial SATCOM. Lindenmayer noted that its use represents a significant change for armed forces.

“The first priority is to reduce the risk and ensure militaries are comfortable with commercial SATCOM from a trust perspective, which includes things like security and cyber,” he said. “In my mind, building trust will be the hardest thing to do.”

However, it can be achieved, he noted. Trust is already being built through pilot programmes that allow the commercial sector to deliver and execute the capabilities that militaries need, running the missions and proving they can meet DoD requirements.

To continue delivering a trusted service, commercial providers must meet two of the tenets outlined in the Commercial Space Strategy, Lindenmayer said: achieve integration prior to crisis; and establish security conditions that promote integration. “That is absolutely critical.”

Standards could also prove a challenge, he said, with the military operating around 17,000 satellite terminals around the world that are often bespoke systems built on proprietary modem or waveform technology. These can use a wide range of standards, he noted.

“If we want everybody to communicate together, we have to overcome those challenges of standardisation.”

Embracing the future

The space threat from adversary nations looms larger than ever, warned Lindenmayer, with dangers ranging from kinetic attacks to jamming and cyber operations. It is vital to accelerate development, he said, by enabling the commercial sector to do more.

He pointed to a recent visit to Capitol Hill where he saw agreement across the political spectrum on the critical need for enhanced space operations in defence. This must be embraced and accelerated at pace, he said.

“I don't think there's anybody, on either side of the aisle, that doesn't agree, but if you say you want to do more with commercial, then it needs to be done faster,” he explained. “We have to find a way to overcome concerns about security, and the only way to do that is deliver more pilot programmes that prove the capability.”

For more information visit intelsat.com/gov