Jane Edwards
Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president of government strategy and policy for Inmarsat Government, said in a Kratos Defense & Security Solutions podcast aired Wednesday that satellite communications as a service works to provide military and commercial users with a “full end-to-end†communications capability.
Cowen-Hirsch told Constellations podcast moderator John Gilroy that a satcom-as-a-service model is designed to allow users to “plug in and enjoy the service†while leaving the satellite ownership, network management, technology insertion and ground station maintenance to the operator.
“The corollary to this would be very similar to your cell phone … You just really want to turn your phone on and use your application,†Cowen-Hirsch said.
“Sat comm as a service does that for the military so that the applications are available when and where needed,†she added.
She also discussed how the Wideband Global Satcom system supports military satcom operations as well as the potential role of commercial satcom in building up military satcom capabilities.
“What we are looking towards the future for is this integrated sat comm architecture where commercial is the foundation, augmented with the legacy capability of [WGS], and then filled in with a small purpose-built amount of capability to address the most specific, unique military-specified missions,†she added.
Cowen-Hirsch also tackled the concept behind assured communications and high-throughput satellites and shared her insights on the government acquisition culture.
