At no other time in recent history has Space-based technology played a vital role than it has in the past few years.
A new era of quick response modes, often greatly enhanced by Commercial Communications Satellite technology has become obsolete necessity for national security.
Therefore, we need to transform the way we do communications today. But there is some discussion on how commercial elements fit into this picture.
When you are fighting a war, even in the most built-out Country in the world with an established Communication infrastructure, it can all be suddenly disrupted. We go in prepare with food, water, tanks and ammunition, as well as communication equipment obviously.
So we believe there will be a major need for enhancements from the military community for both their military and their commercial satellite communications, at least in our lifetime.
Commercial entities need to understand military requirements, government planners need to understand commercial capabilities, and civil commercial space firms need a place at the table.
THE FORECAST:
- There is a greater emphasis put on satellite communications and the increased need for more commercials system involvement.
- This procurement increase need to be realized as the nation now addresses the new terrorist threat that has emerged in the arena of national security.
- A report predicts that topline growth throughout the next 10years will be slow and steady with a high priority for procurement over time.
- There are projections that have been done and what they show is a lot of different uses for bandwidth.
- No longer will there just be the traditional communications (Voice and Message) and not just internet of types of applications that are going to be running in dynamic scenarios.
- We also recognize a growing need for a stronger communication infrastructure considering the bandwidth on demand problems currently facing the security and the forces.
- We believe the emergency/Military advantage is linked to the ability to use information and push information from sensors systems to decision makers and from decision makers to doers/shooters, and to do it rapidly and then to do it in a way that they can share that awareness among the operators.
All of that takes bandwidth and we need to have a source for that bandwidth.
- Ubiquitous Satellite Communications and unlimited bandwidth seems the destiny of the world. But most of the time it doesn’t turn out that way.
- Depending on the extent of damaged during a disaster or crisis to the communications infrastructure, the commercial sector may satisfy its appetite (to some extent for voice and message only) for bandwidth largely with fiber optics and terrestrial based cellular phones.
- However, these Services are not directly applicable to many important needs of the expeditionary emergency/military operations.
- This understanding of the need to increase bandwidth for emergency/military use has sprung from lessons learned in the field, channeling data and communications among the active theaters has proven, at times, challenging during the Persian Gulf war-which we still think of as being a pretty high-tech-war an air wing on an aircraft carrier had less access to bandwidth for data transfer than anyone whose home was equipped with a standard telephone modem.
- Today we think that it could take 200 times more bandwidth than that in order to prosecute two major emergencies/wars at the same time.
- In addition to widening the bandwidth for Emergency/Military customers, information satellite imagery produced by the commercial imaging companies is yet another venue where stronger military/commercial synergies can prove profitable.
- Today, with current occurrences in the North-East of Nigeria, NEMA need to order roughly 500, 000 square kilometers of imagery over the crisis region.
- The Agency need to significantly invest to tune up its infrastructure so as to be able to provide the needed satellite imagery very quickly.
- The agencies out-year requirements should not only be imagery, but for satellite-based products as well.
- As the government recognize the value commercial imagery brings to the table, the security sector will grow in terms of geospatial and imagery information products and services
- The key driver in this budget growth right now is this commercial remote sensing industry coming online.
- The Nigerian government needs to as an anchor tenant in this industry as it forms.
- The Future:
- The appropriate role of the government in facilitating commercial space business is naturally an ongoing debate. But the outcome depends on whether the debate more closely focuses on:
- Enhanced Communications
- Military-Specific Satellite programs/emergency operations
- Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) information products.
- We believe that the military and the commercial satellite communications arena ate Linked together at the hip, at least during this time.
- Commercial satellite will always have that reach-back capability that is vital for successful communications during emergencies military operations.