Inmarsat Government’s Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Satcom Terminals Key to Space Capability Access

Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president of government strategy and policy for Inmarsat Government, has said the Defense Department’s “analysis of alternatives” study suggests that “commercial is really hard, and you have to follow the terminals,” SpaceNews reported Thursday.

DoD’s 18-month-long study looked at how services could leverage commercial innovations to support video conferencing, live drone streaming and other global communications and found that most military satellite communication terminals are obsolete and not compatible with modern satcom systems.

“Terminals are a critical component to access the space capability,” Cowen-Hirsch told SpaceNews.

She said the commercial satcom industry has made substantial investments in modular terminals designed to replace “vertically integrated” platforms and support the establishment of an “integrated architecture,” which she believes the Pentagon should have.