COLORADO SPRINGS – Military space leaders continue looking for ways to inject commercial technologies into their architectures. For strategic communications and positioning, navigation and timing, though, true commercial alternatives may not exist.
That was one takeaway from an April 8 press briefing with Space Systems Command (SSC) officials.
“We will continue to leverage more and more commercial wherever possible,” said Charlotte Gerhart, deputy director of SSC’s Military Communications and Positioning, Navigation & Timing Directorate. “That doesn’t mean everything that commercial has fits every single need.”
The Space Force is in the middle of source selection for Evolved Strategic Satcom (ESS), an $8 billion program to supplement and eventually replace the existing Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF), the satellite constellation at the heart of the nation’s nuclear command, control and communications network.
“There are some aspects of commercial that just don’t exist or don’t meet the most stringent requirements for the nuclear mission,” said Col. A.J. Ashby, SSC Strategic SATCOM senior materiel leader.
Unique Waveform
For nuclear command and control, the U.S. military relies on the extended data rate waveform, “which is not commercially proliferated,” Ashby said. “We need to make sure that as the threat evolves, that there is a viable commercial performer that can deliver on that particular capability.”
SSC leaders also consider the breadth of commercial markets.
“We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where you have a single commercial provider that can deliver that capability,” Ashby said. “If you find yourself in vendor lock, it could increase costs and delay delivering that capability to the warfighter.”
For tactical communications, the military relies heavily on commercial providers. For strategic communications, network access and security are paramount.
The military needs know “who’s on the system, what they’re doing on the system, and that the system can be where I need it, when I need it against an adversary,” Gerhart said.
Commercial PNT
SSC continues to track rapid change in commercial markets including alternative positioning, navigation and timing.
“When we talk about going more commercial, it’s leveraging more of those parts, more of those processes, more of those components, whenever and wherever we can,” Gerhart said. “With the industry base growing on the commercial side, we have more options and more opportunities. So we’re continuously looking, what can we pull in? How can we be faster and less expensive and more capable by pulling in the newest, latest technology that commercial uses.”
In terms of positioning, navigation and timing, it’s hard to imagine a true commercial alternative to the Global Positioning System.
“Transitioning the full GPS constellation to a full commercial product would be wonderful,” Gerhart said. “We’re a long ways away from that because we all get GPS for free.”
Plus GPS underpins the world economy and aviation safety.
If a true commercial alternative emerged, “how would we certify those commercial products and make sure that it’s safe enough for us to fly,” Gerhart asked. “The future’s bright. But until I have that capability and that level of assurance and quality, we need dedicated systems.”
