Posted on 07/02/2002 12:47:45 PM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
A new constellation of military communications satellites equipped with laser links likely will start launching several years later than originally envisioned due to the complexities involved in designing the system, Pentagon sources said.John Stenbit, assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications and intelligence, said in a January interview that he hoped to begin launching those satellites by 2007 or 2008. But Pentagon sources now say meeting that schedule appears increasingly unlikely. Pentagon officials believe that using lasers for satellite communications will greatly speed communication among far-flung forces compared to the current systems that rely on radio frequencies, and give those forces access to nearly unlimited bandwidth.
Commanders are particularly eager for more bandwidth so they can transmit data from unmanned aerial vehicles, which have been used extensively by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The new architecture would merge the satellites that today carry communications between fixed sites with those that carry secure, jam-proof communications into a single constellation called Advanced Wideband. The satellites would be connected via laser to the satellites that service mobile users, and a small constellation reserved for strategic use.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph K. Kellogg, director for command, control, communications and computer systems on the Pentagon’s joint staff, said that the Pentagon has made preparations in future budget plans to continue with its previously planned satellite communication systems in the event that the laser concept is too difficult to execute.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Peter M. Cuviello, the service’s chief information officer, said he believes it is "within the realm of the possible" for the Pentagon to begin launching the new satellites at some point between 2008 and 2010.
Pentagon officials involved with the study had not addressed the complexity of building the new satellites with enough seriousness when they began studying the concept earlier this year, Cuviello said during a brief interview June 21.
"People immediately want to start bending metal, but there’s a lot of physics that we have to get through first," Cuviello said.
However, officials are now taking the task more seriously, and have brought in more experts from within the military and from industry to help design the new satellites, Cuviello said. But Pentagon sources said that having the satellites ready before 2010 would require a rush job that could lead to technical problems, and the military may be better served by continuing with satellite programs like the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites until the new architecture is ready. The Pentagon has not made a final commitment to deploying the laser-linked architecture, Kellogg said.
While the military has experimented with using lasers to cross-link satellites in space, it has not used lasers to connect its communications satellites to the ground, he said during a brief interview June 21.
"We have got to show that it works," Kellogg said. "And we don’t know if it’s going to work."
The Pentagon requested $200 million for the program in its 2003 budget request.
The Senate Armed Services Committee reduced that request by $80 million.
The money was slated to be used for "detailed pre-acquisition activities" according to the Senate version of the 2003 spending legislation. In cutting the budget request, the committee said the Pentagon should first complete its concept and technology development before moving forward.
The House Armed Services Committee fully funded the request in its version of the spending legislation. The Army had been concerned earlier in the project that in addition to the risk inherent with the new architecture, that the lasers would not reach deployed forces below cloud cover, rain or heavy foliage.
But following recent discussions with Stenbit, radio frequency needed to meet the needs of those users is now part of the plans for the new satellites, Kellogg and Cuviello said. Air Force Lt. Col. Ken McClellan, a Pentagon spokesman, said Stenbit was not available to comment for this article.
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