SATCOM – A key capability for the Government and Defense Market

With the multiple conflicts that have broken out over the last few years, it has become evident that SATCOM is a key tool for the Government and Defense market. I recently caught up with Nicole Robinson, President of DataPath to discuss the formation of Gilat Defense, along with the importance of resiliency within the industry.

Q: The formation of Gilat Defense was recently announced, where does DataPath sit in this structure?

A: DataPath was acquired by Gilat in November of 2023. Considering the robust portfolio of business conducted with the U.S. Government for nearly 30 years, Gilat and DataPath agreed a Proxy structure would be best in order to continue to operate as a wholly owned. U.S. company. What this allows us to do is to continue to serve US defense end users, even though our parent company is foreign owned and operated.

Gilat, which has traditionally been a foreign-based, Israeli-owned and operated entity, the kind of investment and commitment that they have made by the formation of Gilat Defense to really support US operators and allied operators is huge and it resonated with me when I joined the company a year ago.

When Gilat was looking at the growth of the business and where they could see the greatest potential, they rightly placed that influence and attention on defense. With this, the DataPath acquisition was the first domino in a series of activities, inclusive of the formation of the Gilat Defense division, under which DataPath now falls. It really is a strong signal to the market that this is the future of Gilat products.

The interesting thing about Gilat defense is within it is not only DataPath, but also Wavestream, as well as the Satellite Networks business for Gilat in North America. So as part of Gilat defense, what we're able to do is really contribute to bringing the total value of Gilat's portfolio into the US defense market and allied defense markets. Where we specialize more directly on the US and NATO customers as DataPath, we're now able to bring in the Wavestream amplifiers, the Gilat modem technologies and integrate it within our broader solutions, along with our terminals to support our customers.

Q: Now you are all part of the same parent organisation, does this allow for more integration between the divisions?

A: Yes, next year will mark 30 years that DataPath has been serving the critical satellite communications needs our US government and allied customers. One of the things they've liked about our approach is that we often say we're technology agnostic - we're solutions providers. We focus on what the customer need is, and tailor the solution within our terminal system, integrating all of the different components inclusive of the amplifiers and modem technologies to meet the end user need. It just so happens that Gilat has the strongest modem technology available in the market today, so it's an added benefit of us to bring that value inherent in our broader solution portfolio.

Q: Are you offering both bespoke and off-the-shelf solutions?

A: Correct, the off-the-shelf would be our WGS certified portable antennas, such as our QCT (Quick Connect Terminals). These are portable manpack terminal systems, roughly 0.9 meter antennas that are ideal for uniform personnel. We then have our C-Series 1.2 meter and 2 meter portable antenna solutions which are also WGS certified. Those are fairly off-the-shelf that people will buy in tens, 20s, hundreds, to be able to outfit mobility groups.

Our DKET systems, which are our 3-6 meter class hub systems that are relocatable via forklift and trailer mount. These are where you're getting into more of the custom requirements. So you may have, as we do with some customers, a need for tri-band capability. They want to be able to operate in X, Ku or Ka band depending on their mission requirement by just changing out the kits. There are others who may have one specific frequency that they require in a different suite of motive technology, in this case the skin is the same, the intent is the same, but the brains and guts inside is highly tailored to meet the end user need, and that's really where the systems integration and solutions value comes into what we do.

Q: The importance of SATCOM within the government and defense market has become a key discussion recently. Have you seen an increase in demand or is it a case that it is becoming more public knowledge?

A: I would say the latter. I started in this industry in 2004, spending around 14 years with SES. I ran the global government group and was very surprised to learn in those early stages how much the defense missions relied on commercial satellite communications capability. It always sort of was an assumption that I had that it would be the nuclear-hardened, military assets that are supporting military missions. The majority of defense missions today are relying on commercial capabilities. Modem technologies, antenna technologies, the SATCOM bandwidth, you know, all way across the board.

So I think that's been the case for some time and thanks to the launch of some of these NGSO (Non Geostationary Earth Orbit) constellations, some of the more popular LEO (Low Earth Orbit) constellations, it's becoming more commonplace to hear about SATCOM technologies for defense end users. I also think we find ourselves in a different time with the conflict in eastern Europe and the disruption in the Middle East. We're hearing more about it in main mainstream media, so it may seem that there's a rise in the use of commercial SATCOM for defensive users, but I think it actually more visibility of that use than anything else.

The movement to other orbits outside of GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) is also adding to the capability that's possible now, also in terms of disaster response and nation building. It's a beautiful time and certainly one that's revealing the high impact that commercial operators have for the defense end users.

Q: With the increase of LEO and MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) applications, do you see a change in customer requirements for a multi-orbit solution?

A: It has been the case for some time where you had a fixed terminal system pointed at a fixed asset located in Geostationary orbit. Now with non-Geostationary, you've got the requirement for antennas to be able to do handoff, so they're making a connection before they're breaking a connection over the horizon, for example. So this adds a requirement for mobility which was not previously required.

One of the consistent themes we see in the defense domain is a need for resiliency and redundancy. Instead of what you would have 20 years ago, where you were relying on one particular asset within one constellation with one terminal system and one modem, now our end user are saying, we need the flexibility to work across constellation, to work across frequency bands, and to work across orbits as well.

So that's changed not only the use case for the space segment, incorporating LEO, MEO and GEO, but when you think about the ground segment and what has to happen for those antennas so that they can be able to operate on those different orbits, so that kits can be provided so they can swap out between different frequencies and that they can operate in different constellations.

It is a very loud thing that we're hearing now. You imagine the practical use case of your customer operating in a congested or a contested environment. You're otherwise denied or blocked from service on one particular frequency or from one constellation. You'd really like to have the option to say, I'm just going to swap over to this particular constellation or this frequency so you don't lose that continuity of connection and service.

Q: In the Space Segment, there is a lot of talk about sovereign capability, do you also see this in the Ground Segment?

A: Very much so. From a ground segment perspective, especially on the US side, having the WGS certification which means you’ve met the arduous standards of the US DoD is critical. DataPath today is the number one provider of WGS certified terminal solutions in the world. We have 41 terminals that are WGS certified. No one else has that many. We’re very proud of that.

Our systems are stamped made in America, which means they have at least 65% USA content, most of our systems are over 80% content from the United States. It's something that we're always pushing ourselves to continue to find additional US providers to push us to the 100% mark, which we think is wonderful for our US providers.

For our allied providers, I am seeing that in Europe there's a similar theme that's starting to become expressed in terms of wanting to have that data sovereignty, wanting to have that trusted infrastructure, that EU infrastructure. As an example, the IRIS2 program is an 11 Billion Euro nod in that direction, they want European capability, European space segment, European ground segment, made in the EU. So I think that sovereignty is key. I think there's also a spirit of being able to take some of these larger non-geostationary constellations, land the data in country or in theatre rather than popping out and finding another way to come back in.

Our DKET 3421 relocatable hub system is perfect for that, because it does allow you to be flexible about your hub infrastructure and where you locate it. You may have a brigade that is operating and are able bring that data down in a sovereign trusted fashion right where you're operating and not have to send it out to across those sovereign lines.

Q: In addition to the traditional RF solutions, you have recently made a announcement with Cailabs for Transportable Optical SATCOM Terminals, what benefits does this solution offer?

A: We have designed a solution based off our DKET system. It's the first ever transportable optical ground station on the market and we're really excited about the partnership with Cailabs.

When you're thinking about the LEO constellations that are in orbit now, the LEO to LEO laser data connection that's happening in space is creating this mesh network in space. What needs to happen now is delivering that data from space to the ground, and the beauty of the transportable and relocatable ground station for optical is the fact that it is so resilient. You're able to take it into a theatre where you have a need for trusted data download. Perhaps you've collected intelligence and surveillance imagery off of the Earth observation satellites that are operating at LEO, It not only SATCOM, right? There's synthetic aperture radar, there's optical imagery, there's RF mapping, all of those constellations at LEO. They're collecting tremendous amounts of data. How do they get that down so that it can be processed to be analyzed and that actions can be taken on the basis of what it has revealed.

Optical is beautiful for that as is not subject to the jamming that RF can be subject too. It's not a constant stream, like an RF connection would be. It's more bursts of that laser connectivity. Also, the transportability that our solution offers allows it to not be a sitting target.

Q: Cloud Cover and Light Pollution can be challenges for optical, but as this is a transportable solution, it helps mitigate this?

A: If you liken it to a cruise where they'll move around particular storms or disruptions, you have the same option. In addition to this the strength and the throughput of the Cailabs instruments in particular allow data from the space segment to effectively be split apart like a puzzle to travel around some of those prohibiting features like clouds and smoke and be reassembled on the other side. It's a fascinating technology and I think the throughput and the power that that they have been able to configure with this instrument is a real benefit to this solution.

In addition to this, we talked about the theme for defense end user of resiliency and redundancy. Don’t be limited to one path but have multiple paths. Where the optical connection is limited, you can have another solution, giving the end user options.