Naval Space Command's top functional requirements for commercial SATCOM

Satellite communications (SATCOM) provides the only over-the-horizon information medium capable of delivering to afloat naval forces the required voice, video, imagery and data products and applications. Existing and planned military SATCOM initiatives presently cannot fulfill these operational requirements; as a consequence, commercial alternatives are utilized as a near-term bridge and cost-effective solution. The US Navy has used CNO Special Project Challenge Athena (CA) as a proof of concept to lease commercial satellite transponders and associated commercial earth station service. This program has sought to integrate commercialized agencies/resources with DOD shore based architecture ground facilities to provide high data rate (T-1) information to large deck ships in order to alleviate the bandwidth shortfall. The Navy's philosophical tradeoff is that a "lease methodology" is much more operationally effective (in the near term)-than purchasing or building a satellite constellation. Nevertheless, the Navy's objective is to pursue commercial SATCOM, looking for commercial capabilities that can satisfy its unique SATCOM requirements. So, how does the Navy identify and quantify its unique requirements and match them against existing and/or emerging commercial SATCOM system's capabilities so that optimized bang for the "premium" buck can be obtained? Is there a fit for the Navy's requirements in the commercial SATCOM arena? This paper serves to identify the most important characteristics of those Navy unique requirements that exist for commercial SATCOM; i.e. to identify where they are needed, why they are needed, and how the fleet will use them. The intent of this paper is to provide industry with a better understanding of the hurdles the Navy faces in identifying current and future SATCOM requirements that commercial SATCOM could potentially fill.