Air Force, Industry Considering Future of Protected Satcom.

• Author: Machi, Vivienne

The Air Force has long been hesitant to use commercially owned and operated platforms for its most secure satellite networks. But as it begins to consider the shape of its future protected communications architecture and find new ways to serve tactical users, officials and industry leaders see more options for hosted payloads.

"There's a lot of studying, a lot of effort, a lot of engagement with industry right now to understand those hosting opportunities," said Col. Timothy McKenzie, chief of the advanced development division for military satellite communications at the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

McKenzie revealed what he called the notional future protected satellite communications operational viewpoint 1 at the 2017 Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association MIL-COM conference in Baltimore.

The new architecture would address key resiliency issues within the current system and expand the definition of protected satcom beyond strategic communications, to include the tactical war-fighter as a user, he said. It is expected to include several efforts to either procure new satellites or piggyback payloads on commercially owned and operated buses, he added.

The service has also been working with industry on a program called the protected tactical enterprise service program, or PTES, McKenzie said. That is expected to implement a new protected tactical waveform over the Air Force's existing wideband global satellite--or WGS--constellation to better service the warfighter, McKenzie said.

The center released a draft request for proposals for the PTES program this past December via FedBizOpps. The Air Force is looking for the system to reach initial operating capability around 2023, McKenzie said.

The service also plans to develop a new protected tactical satellite program, which would increase the amount of anti-jam capability provided to tactical users in a contested environment, Mc-Kenzie said. The Air Force is exploring several options for the program besides developing a whole new military-grade satellite, such as hosting a protected tactical waveform payload on a commercially operated system, he added.

As the Air Force ponders these future options, the service expects to continue using advanced extremely high frequency satellites--nuclear-hardened systems with onboard signal processing and crossbanded extremely high frequency and super high frequency communications--into the 2030s, McKenzie said.

Lockheed Martin, the platform's manufacturer, has delivered four out of six planned AEHF satellites to...