The lack of secure telephone communications between U.S. and allied
military forces was an oft-heard complaint during the Persian Gulf
War and subsequent operations involving multi-national coalitions.
Now, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is trying to
get out the message that there is a relatively easy way to achieve
secure voice communications among coalition partners. For about
$4,000, U.S. government officials and selected military allies can
purchase a wireless handset that meets National Security Agency
encryption standards.
This capability ensued from the Defense Department’s $72
million investment in Iridium Satellite LLC, which operates a constellation
of 66 communications satellites. That constellation was about to
be rendered inoperative, after Iridium filed for bankruptcy in 1999.
But a number of investors, including the Defense Department, bought
the satellites at a bargain price, and Iridium was resurrected.
The company re-launched its satellite-phone services earlier this
year.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Pentagon is entitled to 20,000
handsets and gets a low-cost calling plan. U.S. government users
get free unlimited air time between Iridium handsets and pay $40
per month for up to 500 minutes of air time when they are connected
to terrestrial commercial phone lines.
So far, DISA, which manages the program, has signed up nearly 4,100
users, half of whom are from the State Department. DISA officials
predict that the numbers will go way up, once the word gets out
that this service is available. Beginning in July 2001, users can
purchase “secure sleeves” for $2,270 each. The secure
sleeve looks like a battery pack and is attached to the back of
the Iridium 9505 handset, which costs $1,465. The 12-ounce handset
is sleeker and lighter than the 16-ounce brick-shaped device that
the company inherited from the former Iridium, which went out of
business, because it could not sign up enough customers to buy a
bulky $3,000 handset and pay $3 per minute of air time. Those old
handsets now are being sold for less than $500.
A 9505 handset with the secure module and cable costs $3,998, said
Army Col. Tim Fong, DISA’s program director. “All Defense
Department users are required to buy the phone with the secure sleeve.
The older phones were not securable,” he told reporters during
a briefing in Leesburg, Va.
Allied nations interested in purchasing Iridium handsets with the
encryption capability are NATO members, New Zealand and Australia,
said Fong. Potential non-military U.S. government users, besides
the State Department, are the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Coast
Guard.
Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia “are very interested,”
said Fong. The British and the Australians still have older handsets
and want the new phones. “We have an agreement between the
U.S. and those three countries that allows them to purchase the
9505 phones with a secure sleeve,” said Fong. Only the Joint
Chiefs of Staff can approve foreign use of any of the Defense Department’s
20,000 Iridium slots, he said. “They have to make sure that
the U.S. needs are met first.”
The State Department now is the biggest user of Iridium, said Fong.
“They need secure communications that don’t have to
go through another country’s public infrastructure.”
The Defense Department, not Iridium, funded the development of
the secure sleeve, made by Motorola. So far, the company has shipped
about 1,000 modules. The Type 1 encryption for the Iridium phones
is compatible with the security standard called STU III, which the
Pentagon mandates for desktop telephones.
DISA channels all calls made by government users of Iridium through
a secure gateway, located in Hawaii. “We control user access,”
said Fong. The goal is to prevent any calls from being directed
through a foreign gateway. A call eventually can be routed to a
commercial network, “but only after it’s gone through
our gateway,” Fong said. As of April 2001, DISA had recorded
about 30,000 calls made by Iridium government users.
Iridium handsets often are used in Bosnia and Kosovo to supplement
terrestrial systems, said Fong. The Pentagon likes the service,
he said, because it works anywhere in the world, even the poles.
Iridium will not replace Inmarsat, Milstar, the Defense Satellite
Communication Systems, other commercial satellites or terrestrial
services, he said. It is “only a gap-filler for those areas
where it’s hard to communicate,” because there is no
infrastructure.
The calling plan makes Iridium price-competitive, compared to other
services, said a U.S. Navy official speaking on background. Calls
made from a ship at sea using Inmarsat, he said, cost $12 a minute.
It made sense for the Defense Department to invest $72 million
in Iridium, over two years, said Fong, because it lowers the cost
of the service for government users. Under the old Iridium, military
commanders were reluctant to use the service, because the $3 per
minute charges resulted in huge phone bills that drained resources
from other priorities. With the current calling plan, commanders
can budget for the expense and use the phone without worrying so
much about the per-minute charges.
Non-U.S. subscribers who qualify for one of the Defense Department’s
20,000 handsets must pay a $150 per month access fee, plus the cost
of the phone calls. They don’t get a flat rate plan. The phone
calls are charged based on the commercial rate that someone would
pay from wherever they are calling, to Hawaii, where the U.S. gateway
is located.
Commercial users of Iridium have their calls routed through gateways
in the United States (Arizona) and Italy.
In June, Iridium launched a data service, aimed at providing low
data-rate (10 kilobits per second) Internet access and e-mail in
remote areas of the world where there are no other means of connectivity.
According to Mark Adams, Iridium’s chief technology officer,
the company has received several inquiries about this service from
the State Department and from several agencies within the Defense
Department.
Data applications only require a handset and a computer, said Adams.
A customized serial cable is used to connect a handset with the
computer. He cautioned that Iridium “is not trying to compete
with existing telephony infrastructure. ... It’s not a high-speed
backbone service. We are targeting businesses that are in areas
with no infrastructure.”