Inmarsat’s Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Ka-band Satcom Key to Military’s Manned, Unmanned Airborne Missions

Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Inmarsat, has said she believes Ka-band satellite communications can help military and government agencies support manned and unmanned aerial missions amid the evolving global security environment.

Cowen-Hirsch wrote in an op-ed piece published in MilSatMagazine that Ka-band satellite constellations work to support unmanned operations that require high data rates by providing “uniform coverage in both bandwidth and power with the flexibility to move bandwidth seamlessly into demanding regions.”

That feature help aeronautical satcom users to provide high-fidelity intelligence support from any operational areas.

Ka-band works to facilitate interoperability between commercial satcom and military satcom services since it is “the only frequency where the commercial and military bands are immediately adjacent to each other,” she noted.

She also discussed the potential benefit of switching between two Ka-band military networks.

“Transitioning between the two military Ka-band networks seamlessly affords users the ultimate in operational flexibility and network restoral options across the full spectrum of environments,” she added.

Cowen-Hirsch also cited how investments in satcom as a service could help the Defense Department build up the redundancy and flexibility of military satcom as well as leverage commercial satcom systems.