Defence’s military satellite capacity needs, also will generate
revenues through third party deals. Paradigm Secure
Communications (an EADS Astrium Services company) is
responsible for selling excess capacity on the Skynet 5A, 5B
and 5C satellites to interested nations. Malcolm Peto, managing
director, Paradigm Secure Communications, believes the Skynet 5
system is well placed to meet the needs for more military satellite
communications capacity. “There are two things impacting military
communications at the moment. Firstly, there is a need for more
military capacity. Secondly, there is also a worldwide shortage of
commercial capacity in certain areas. We want to be able to meet
both of those requirements,” he says.
The challenge is to bring some of these deals to fruition this
year. “I think a good year would be that some of those countries
that have been interested in the use of another country’s military
capacity over the last couple of years, to see them start putting
out formal requests for that capacity. That is the first step. We
have seen some traction in the United States last year, which was
quite widely publicized. That would be a big step. We have seen
some of our NATO partners do it in the past. For some of the
Eastern European countries, that are not necessarily NATO, they
are starting to be more interested, so for them to formally request
it would be the first big success this year. Secondly, to win a large
proportion would be the next stage. I certainly expect the requests
to come in, barring any political shake-ups,” says Peto.
Despite the fact that U.K. troops are set to pull out of Iraq, as
well as deepening economic gloom, Peto does not expect either
of these to have a major impact on the Skynet 5 system. “I don’t
envisage any large impact. In fact, we envisage the contrary,”
he says. “Coming out of Iraq is one thing, and we were well
established there, but the intent of NATO and the United Kingdom
to make Afghanistan work is causing us a very large work load
at present. What we were doing in Iraq, we are now doing in
Afghanistan — and more substantially in Afghanistan. Within the
overall Astrium remit, all of our businesses in France and Germany
are busy to try and underpin the Allied Forces in Afghanistan.”
Other European countries also are looking to develop their
military satellite communications systems. One such country is
Spain, which has a military satellite system consisting of Spainsat
and Xtar-Eur, operated by Hisdesat. Miguel Angel García Primo,
COO, Hisdesat, says the system gives the Spanish armed forces
far more flexibility. “The new system has provided our armed
forces with new uses and capabilities such as communications
on the move, use of manpacks even within global coverage and
increased traffic through all terminals in general and through the
smallest terminals in particular, for example, in the case of
submarines. The major challenges are related with the upgrade
of the network to be able to fully exploit the satellite capabilities
both in terms of higher data rates and better interconnectivity
with the concept of everything being over IP and with a final goal
of becoming network centric,” he says.
The military satellite communications system enables Spain to
collaborate better with other European countries. “The Spanish
Ministry of Defence and Hisdesat fitted the Spainsat and Xtar-Eur
satellites with more capability than was necessary in order to
cooperate with our allies and provide these capabilities where
they are needed,” says García Primo. “In addition, the two-thirds
of the Earth coverage of the Hisdesat system allows several
customers to use both satellites. Our military cooperation with
