Brenda Marie Rivers
Rick Lober, vice president and general manager of Hughes Network Systems’ defense and intelligence systems segment, has said the Department of Defense should consider tapping industry for network management resources to support end-to-end global operations.
Lober wrote in an opinion piece published Monday on C4ISrnet that commercial open-systems technology can help the DoD efficiently manage satellite communications infrastructure while supporting enterprisewide functions.
According to Lober, a resilient and interoperable communications infrastructure is key to relaying intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data between U.S. and allied entities across various operating environments including hybrid satcom networks.
Network management platforms that utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning such as the HughesNet system can help the service branches mitigate reliance on stovepiped technologies while handling traffic across commercial and military constellations, he noted.
“By leveraging commercially provided open-systems tools and services adapted to meet their requirements efficiently, the DoD’s satellite communications capability will be better suited to the war fighter compared to today’s vendor-locked, program-by-program infrastructure,†said Lober.
His comments come after Gen. John Raymond, chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, issued a white paper in January detailing the DoD’s vision for the nation's satcom infrastructure.
