Inmarsat’s Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Govt, Troops Should Adopt Commercial Satcom That “Moves” With Them

Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Inmarsat, has said government personnel and warfighters should adopt a satellite communications platform that “moves” with them to facilitate voice, video and data sharing and carry out missions amid disasters and global conflicts.

Hirsch told the Mobile Satellite Users Association in an interview published Tuesday that industry’s investments and innovation efforts work to help the Defense Department leverage commercial satcom systems to build up the redundancy and flexibility of their military satcom platforms in support of missions worldwide.

She noted that Inmarsat’s Global Xpress network is designed for worldwide mobility and has been adopted by new and traditional government clients.

Cowen-Hirsch said the fourth Global Xpress satellite is under the in-orbit testing phase and that the company plans to launch another satellite for the network in 2019 to deliver additional capacity across Europe, Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

Two Inmarsat-6 satellites designed to provide Ka– and L-band spectrum capabilities are in the construction stage and one of them - Inmarsat-6 F1 – is expected to take off in 2020, she added.

She discussed Inmarsat’s adoption of a managed service approach to Global Xpress and how the company works to help the U.S. government meet their on-demand, mobile communication requirements through the Ka-band commercial network.

Cowen-Hirsch also cited the satellite industry’s efforts to deliver a wide range of platforms for government applications.

“Companies simultaneously pursue innovation throughout the ground, terminal and space segments – leading to full end-to-end capability that is interoperable with existing MILSATCOM to empower users with the most flexible and immediate of protected technologies,” she added.