Is it Time for a SATCOM Civil Reserve Fleet?

Abstract

The U.S. military depends upon satellite communications (SATCOM) like never before. However, dedicated military SATCOM (MILSATCOM) does not provide enough capacity to meet the demands of today's warfighters. Current plans call for commercial SATCOM to fill the capacity gap. Unfortunately, the capacity just isn't there. Nor can it respond quickly enough to meet the surge-capacity needs of U.S. quick-response forces. Three frameworks have been proposed to mitigate this surge-capacity problem. A Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAW) framework calls for establishing a commercial satellite backup capability that can be tapped when a crisis erupts. A spot market lease framework calls for buying capacity on the open market when needed. A cascade strategy framework moves MILSATCOM users to commercial SATCOM to free-up military capacity for the high-priority operational users. The cascade strategy, combined with pre-crisis planning and innovative acquisition strategies, offers the best solution for solving the surge-capacity problem. It will require the combined efforts of the Defense Information Systems Agency, United States Space Command, and operational users around the world.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 08, 2000
Accession Number
ADA378591

Entities

People

  • Mark D. Bontrager

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Bandwidth
  • Command Control Communications And Computer Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Frequency Bands
  • Governments
  • Information Systems
  • Military Operations
  • Mobile Phones
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • Satellite Communications
  • Space Communications
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Space