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Despite Delay, Navy Is Committed To Satellite Communication Program

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 March 2004, 06:00 CST

Satellite communications capability - critical to network centric operations - has become the dominant feature of the U.S. Navy's involvement in space, and despite the anticipated delay of a key program, the service is committed to its missions in this arena, officials told Sea Power.

According to the Pentagon's fiscal year 2005 budget request, the Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) - a communications satellite program upon which the Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Navy would rely - would receive $571.1 million. The request is far less than the $790.5 million anticipated in the fiscal 2004 budget.

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are competing for the system development and demonstration contract award in the potentially $8 billion MUOS program. The contract award was scheduled for earlier in fiscal 2004 and may now occur in June.

An artist's concept of the Ultrahigh Frequency Follow-On satellite communications system, slated to be replaced by the Navy's Mobile User Objective System in the next decade.

The Navy had intended to launch the first of six or eight MUOS satellites in 2007, to replace the Ultrahigh-Frequency Follow On satellites now set to orbit by 2010. Under a revised program schedule, MUOS satellites would be launched in 2009 or later, achieving full operational capability in 2013 or perhaps as late as 2018, according to a report by Marco Caceres, an analyst with the Teal Group think tank, located in Fairfax, Va. An official with Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command - which is responsible for acquiring the MUOS satellites - told Sea Power that deploying the MUOS system before 2009 "just wasn't feasible."

But MUOS remains important to the Navy, the official said, and to the DoD because its satellites would provide networking services to a large number of portable field terminals. Among the lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq, the DoD has noted the success it had in linking special operations forces in remote areas to Air Force and Navy air power via satellite communications. As the Ultrahigh- Frequency Follow On satellites used during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom decay over the next two decades, the Navy is responsible for their replacement.

Despite the MUOS program's delay, the Ultrahigh-Frequency Follow On, or UFO satellites, which the MUOS program was developed to replace, will provide "enough capability to sustain communications until MUOS is developed and operational," according to the Navy official.

MUOS is one of a handful of programs indicative of the Navy's role in space, which has centered on providing satellite communications capability for deployed units from all U.S. services.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reorganized military space management, with the Air Force taking the top spot as "executive agent for space." In support of the changes ordered by DoD, the Navy in 2002 reorganized its activities in space, combining satellite communications systems management with telecommunications network management under a single authority.

The Naval Network and Space Operations Command (NNSOC), based at Dahlgren, Va., was given oversight of shipboard networks, satellite communication systems and overseas communications networks, as well as the Navy's links to the multibillion dollar Navy-Marine Corps Intranet.

The efforts of the NNSOC are part of the larger context of DoD's work to create a so-called "global information grid." This grid is the interconnected set of capabilities from across the defense establishment for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating and managing information.

One key to getting the global information grid up and running relatively quickly is the concept's reliance on command, control and communications systems and networks that are already in place, such as those overseen by the NNSOC. Because the Navy has long been accustomed to managing extended wireless communications networks for its deployed task forces, the service is clearing a path that others may follow.

"In many ways the Navy does lead the way. . . . The global information grid provides us a tremendous opportunity . . . to take advantage of those things that are already built or are already in place in our networks," said Rear Adm. John P. Cryer, III, commander of NNSOC. "The Navy is part of the global information grid. But we are not uniquely Navy in anything we do. We fight jointly."

In the age of network centric warfare, and to a degree never before seen in history, control of information may be the decisive element in warfare, says the DoD's Office of Force Transformation under retired Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski. Networking grids like the one being developed by the DoD are guiding the way the services themselves develop and manage information and networks. These networks carry critical bits of information that keep the force ready to operate everything from electronic orders for maintenance and spare parts to teleconferences among command staff and data links carrying target track information during an air strike.

The NNSOC is charged with ensuring the Navy's networks have capacity, reliability and security. Cryer characterized as "one of the great lessons of the last decade," the necessity that all of the services adhere to common standards of software and interfaces, electronic transmission and data packaging, "to make all of our systems work together."

"We are much better at it today that we have ever been before; we are not developing anything that does not take into account the requirements for standards to maintain our service networks, as well as to interoperale with the DoD-wide global information grid," Cryer said.

Among the challenges faced by military network managers is the physical requirement for bandwidth, which is a communications and computing term that refers to the speed and the range of radio frequencies associated with a data, voice or video transmission. Military communications specialists refer to wireless communications frequencies as "pipes" through which information flows. Each pipe offers only so much bandwidth and may accommodate only so much information, before delays - known as "latency" - or breaks in transmission occur.

During an exercise in Midstand, Norway, a Marine sets up a satellite communication radio of the type that could benefit from MUOS.

For the Navy, which deploys forces that depend on wireless communications while at sea - particularly for command and control - bandwidth management remains a major consideration. Latency and breaks in transmission could be costly to both operational success and to the lives of those carrying out missions.

Space-based satellite communications systems offer reliable, potentially large-bandwidth pipes through which command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information may flow. In addition to relying on the Navy's and other military-developed communications systems, the DoD also has contracted for bandwidth from commercial satellite systems - from Intelsat, Inmarsat and Telstar - as recently as Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

According to the Air Force's air and space power course, during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, 90 percent of intertheater communications were via satellite communication systems, of which between 20 percent and 50 percent were on commercial links. During Operation Enduring Freedom, 2001-02, 60 percent of satellite communication was provided by commercial systems.

Whether it is military space or commercial space capability, the Navy and its sister services are making use of the "high ground" of space to add bandwidth. But Cryer and others have cautioned against too much reliance on non-military systems. For one thing, these satellites may not have defenses against disruption or commercial attack, which are required characteristics of military satellite communications systems.

"We have to strike a balance. In the future we are going to increase our need and dependence upon space-based products, so our challenge is to figure out how to use what is available in the most efficient manner," Cryer said.

The Battle for Bandwidth

Funding shortfalls and a two-year delay in development of a Navy communications satellite system are setbacks, but the Navy retains a major role in providing satellite communications to all military services.

* The Navy has created the Naval Network and Space Operations Command as a focal point satellite and telecommunications network management.

* The DoD's reliance on space-based communications products is growing.

* The military services need more bandwidth, but the use of commercial resources is a concern.

By HUNTER C. KEETER

Associate Editor

Copyright Navy League of the United States Mar 2004

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