The Pentagon’s bold plan to deploy a constellation of satellites
that beam data via lasers is showing signs of progress, but delays
and funding cuts also are in the cards, contend industry and military
experts.
Dubbed the “Transformational Satellite Communications”
system, TSAT is regarded by Defense Department leaders and program
advocates as a technological panacea that could help resolve the
spectrum crunch by making the military services less dependent on
radio communications links.
The Air Force, which oversees the TSAT program, requested $836
million this year to continue research and development work on the
laser technology, the satellites and the ground-based network that
would process the information.
As envisioned, TSAT would include five geostationary spacecraft—tied
together by laser communications—that would function as “routers
in the sky.” The first satellite is scheduled to be launched
in 2013.
The Defense Department regards TSAT as the means to provide military
forces virtually unlimited capacity to send and receive massive
amounts of data, explained Trip Carter, manager of advanced communications
programs at the Raytheon Company. “TSAT is intended to take
the ‘global information grid’ worldwide,” he said.
Although laser communications systems do not exist today in the
Defense Department, program officials are optimistic that the technology
will mature over time. NASA already is showing the promise of laser
links under the Mars Laser Communication Demonstration that is currently
under way.
“We’ve done some experiments that give us some confidence
that we can do this,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Brian Arnold,
who recently retired as commander of the Space and Missile Systems
Center, in Los Angeles.
He described TSAT as “laser communications in space that
work like the Internet [and] … will empower all users and
reduce communications bottlenecks.”
Arnold declined to provide cost figures for the program, but agreed
that, of all the communications satellite systems now in development,
TSAT will be the most expensive. Pentagon budget documents show
estimates of $19 billion for six satellites.
Carter, whose company is one of three contractors working on TSAT
ground equipment, said he is not worried about the technology failing
to perform as advertised. “We’ll deploy the [ground]
network early on, in advance of the spacecraft” to iron out
any problems before the satellites are launched, he said.
“Another problem TSAT is trying to solve is interoperability
… The military services want seamless connections between
systems,” Carter said. “IP based networks are the only
way to achieve interoperability.”
Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are competing for
the TSAT ground segment contract that is expected to be awarded
in October. The winning contractor will be responsible for building
a networks operations center, an operations management center and
transportable facilities for use in emergencies.
Chuck Corwin, a communications engineer at Raytheon, said that
even though laser communications are relatively unproven in military
systems, in TSAT, the risk is not technological, but cultural. “It’s
a matter of having the Defense Department communities cooperating,”
he said. “All the peering networks that are being developed
by different branches of the armed forces will have to agree for
this to work.”
Another source of risk in the program is security. “The network
will be a target, so it needs to be secure,” Corwin said.
In the near term, however, a more significant hurdle for TSAT will
be Capitol Hill, where program supporters have yet to convince many
lawmakers that the technology is more than just a pipedream.
“It’s become really contentious between the Air Force
and Congress,” said John Edwards, a space industry analyst
at Forecast International, a business intelligence firm. He projects
that the $836 million budget sought for TSAT in fiscal year 2006
will see cuts comparable to last year’s reductions. He also
predicted the launch of the first satellite likely will slip to
2015 or 2016.
In fiscal year 2005, the system had its $774.8 million budget request
reduced by $300 million, to $474.8 million. Lawmakers attributed
the cuts to technology risks.
Regardless of what happens with TSAT, the Defense Department will
need to figure out an alternative to radio-frequency based communications,
Edwards said. “The mounting shortage of bandwidth, is expected
to pose a serious problem in the not-so-distant future,” he
wrote in a Forecast International study. “All current satellite
systems use radio frequencies to transmit data, and there is only
so much capacity to go around.
“With increased transmission speeds and capacity at such
high demand among military, civil, and commercial markets, U.S.
operators are all fighting for a bigger piece of the pie,”
Edwards noted. Until TSAT is up an running, the U.S. military will
continue to lean on commercial service providers for additional
bandwidth to ensure continuous communications, he added.