Defense satellite communications are entering a new phase—one defined by flexibility, scale, and the convergence of government ownership combined with commercial innovation. The Department of War (DoW) and its Allied partners are rapidly shifting toward proliferated, hybrid SATCOM architectures that leverage multi-orbit and multi-band capabilities.
The latest model for hybrid SATCOM systems must incorporate advanced command and control (C2) capabilities to manage user terminals, orchestrate networks, and maintain sovereign data control at all times. Together, these changes represent a foundational evolution in how militaries approach space-based connectivity.
The goal is no longer just capacity or coverage. It’s resilience, interoperability, and control – and this shift is evident in both U.S. and Allied strategies.
New possibilities
A new model of hybrid SATCOM networks requires three essential components:
- Multi-orbit, multi-band user terminals
- Virtualized C2 systems for flexible terminal orchestration
- Sovereign data control
Multi-orbit, multi-band user terminals
Recent collaborations, such as the Telesat Government Solutions and ALL.SPACE demonstration showcase seamless access to LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites from a single, innovative, and low-profile user terminal. Access to multiple orbits and frequencies is a vital component to achieving resiliency in congested and contested environments.
The Army’s Next Generation Tactical Terminal (NGTT) program and the Navy’s SATCOM Terminal (transportable) Non-Geostationary (STtNG) program are investing in multi-orbit, multi-beam user terminals to improve network agility, resilience, and satellite network flexibility. The implication is clear: the ability to roam between orbits and frequencies is now an operational requirement.
Even with the best terminals, a long-standing challenge remains: ensuring that capacity in space aligns with the user terminal deployments in all warfighting domains (land, air, sea, and space). Historically, synchronization gaps have extensively delayed the effective use of MILSATCOM investments. Satellites are launched, but warfighters are forced to wait years for compatible terminals and enterprise tools to be deployed that employ the advanced capabilities of new military constellations.
This is where secure commercial systems that offer scalable, global capacity pools provide a game-changing breakthrough, breaking the cycle of synchronization gaps.
Virtualized C2 orchestration
Enterprise C2 systems must enable the DoW to orchestrate capabilities to its users and evolving missions. The Telesat Lightspeed Capacity Pool service offering achieves this by combining the benefits of capacity ownership with the speed and flexibility of commercial innovation. It offers the DoW a dedicated pool of global LEO capacity sized to their exact operational needs, with the DoW maintaining complete control over how and where that capacity is deployed.
The DoW can manage the network as a Virtual Network Operator (VNO), either through federated APIs or a secure management portal. The DoW can then operate and scale its capacity pool in accordance with user terminal deployments, surging capacity exactly when and where required. Guaranteed, long-term access to this capacity pool is achievable through effective procurement reform that extends existing DoW acquisition approaches into commercial SATCOM.
Sovereign data control
Guaranteed access and total network control require one more element to create a new kind of military SATCOM – sovereign data control. Once landed, DoW traffic never traverses commercial infrastructure. This is accomplished through the use of private DoW landing stations and/or point-to-point connectivity between terminals.
Sovereign data control completes this new model for hybrid military/commercial networks, offering many advantages over traditional Government-owned, Contractor-operated (GoCo) systems, such as:
- Longer service life: Telesat Lightspeed LEO satellites have a service life of 10 years, longer than most LEO systems, offering a compelling cost benefit since the satellites do not require replacement as often.
- Operational flexibility: A global capacity pool can be allocated by the DoW among various Services and missions and can be instantly reconfigured to any mission or Combatant Command. Surge capability doesn’t require moving satellites; it simply involves reassigning capacity or adding to the global pool.
- Terminal agnosticism: Multiple terminal options enable services across all domains (land, air, sea, space), forward-compatible terminals to protect existing DoW investments, and innovative new terminals optimized for Telesat Lightspeed.
- Improved resilience: The advanced Telesat Lightspeed architecture is built with redundancy and cybersecurity that approaches that of military satellites, with interference mitigation baked in.
This new model of hybrid Defense SATCOM ensures secure, scalable access that finally synchronizes orbital capacity with terrestrial access. And it aligns directly with Chief of Space Operations General B. Chance Saltzman’s “exploit, buy, build” approach – in which the government leverages commercial capabilities to enhance readiness, rather than duplicating existing solutions.
The next generation of hybrid Defense SATCOM will not be defined by who owns the hardware in space. It will be shaped by how intelligently capacity is used, how resilient networks are built, and how flexibly the DoW can control its data sovereignty.
