Jane Edwards
Jeff Lessner, vice president of defense and intelligence systems division at Hughes Network Systems, said discussions at the recent Satellite 2022 conference highlighted the need for commercial technologies that can improve and deliver resiliency and security within the Department of Defense’s communications system.
Lessner wrote in a blog post published Tuesday on Military Embedded Systems that the conference featured talks on network security, including zero-trust architecture, and technologies designed to deter jamming and other interruptions.
He said Hughes has been collaborating with SES and Honeywell to demonstrate software-defined modem technologies that could help DOD protect communication networks from jamming by switching link paths.
He noted that such technological trends influence the design of military satellite communications systems.
“Since the military is now integrating more commercial techniques and technologies into its once-proprietary systems, the services can take advantage of DevSecOps and Agile development strategies to improve security and get new programs up and running for soldiers to use much more quickly,” Lessner wrote.
Lessner mentioned the Space Development Agency’s effort to build a proliferated satellite architecture in low-Earth orbit to deliver resiliency and cited the importance of collaboration between the military and commercial space market.
“The military space and satellite market along with the commercial technologies that improve resiliency and security are force multipliers providing much-needed high-throughput communications to connect unmanned systems and avionics platforms to ground users worldwide and enable real-time decision-making,” he noted.
