ViaSat-2 SATCOM launched

Viasat has launched its new ViaSat-2 satellite communications (SATCOM) service for government, defence and military applications, the company announced on 12 March.

The communications satellite, supported by ground networking technologies, is capable of transmitting bandwidth-intensive, media-rich cloud applications. The system’s fast data rates and increased satellite capacity will allow 4K and HD video streaming to thousands of electronic devices simultaneously for operational capabilities at the tactical edge.

The system's capacity will enable users to capture and send ISR sensor data, transmit live two-way video conferencing and VoIP calls, and conduct C2 and situational awareness communications as prioritised traffic to more platforms in a region.

Viasat's best available network concept provides a global, redundant system for military to access global Ku-band networks, its more advanced Ka-band networks and the Wideband Global SATCOM system. The ViaSat-2 network allows terminals to roam across multiple networks to maximise resilience and collaboration for transportable, ground fixed, mobile, airborne and maritime platforms.

Resiliency against electromagnetic, terrestrial or cyber-attack is provided through the system's anti-interferer performance, Viasat's satellite access node gateway diversity, seamless satellite switching and assured pattern re-routing. Additionally, Viasat's Active Cyber Defense automatically detects, mitigates and attributes distributed denial-of-service attacks against the network's infrastructure.

In early March 2018, Viasat demonstrated the capabilities of the system, with speeds achieved exceeding 100Mbps for a number of cloud-based government applications.

Ken Peterman, president, government systems, Viasat, said: ‘We are proudly demonstrating emerging US government concept of operations requiring bandwidth-intensive, cloud-connected military applications with our latest high-throughput commercial satellite, ViaSat-2.

‘The innovations in the new ViaSat-2 satellite and network show that we can dramatically improve operational capabilities for military missions. This SATCOM system is the first in our series of ultra-high-capacity global satellite networks, which will enable superior reach, readiness, and resiliency for global military forces.’