Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president of government strategy and policy for Inmarsat Government, has said she believes the adoption of Ka-band satellite communications technology can help the military address interoperability requirements for airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Cowen-Hirsch wrote in a two-part blog post published Thursday that Ka-band’s capacity to cover frequencies that civilian and military users adopt has made it the bandwidth of choice for such users.
“This means that Ka-band terminals can switch seamlessly between [military satcom] and [commercial satcom] always-on systems, permitting users to make the best choice for their mission,†she wrote.
Ka-band can help support intelligence missions in remote areas by preventing irregular “cold†spots during data transmission compared with Ku-band satellites.
“Ka-band high-throughput satellite coverage, on the other hand, is created by many smaller ’spot’ beams whose hot spots can be ‘stitched’ together, resulting in highly consistent coverage,†Cowen-Hirsch added.
She also discussed the satcom-as-a-service offering and its benefits to government and military users.