Hughes Wins US DoD Contract For SATCOM Communications Architecture

Hughes Network Systems, (HUGHES), the provider of broadband satellite networks and services, has won a Wideband Communications Architecture Study (WCAS) contract to support the US Department of Defense (DoD) plan for resilient satellite communications (SATCOM) capabilities.

Under the contract, Hughes will investigate a wide-ranging commercial perspective on how different satellite transports can interoperate for wideband government applications.

Hughes will help to create a secure and affordable WCA that can facilitate varied and redundant space and ground transports, delivering a design analysis of wide-beam, spot-beam, and on-board processing satellites, including GEO/LEO and airborne platforms.

An overall goal is to expand the flexibility and interoperability of U.S. government satellite communications capabilities, allowing Department f Defense's various applications to operate over its own satellite network as well as leveraging commercial satellites, gateways, waveforms, and terminals to increase mission assurance.

Hughes is proposing to leverage a Multi-Modem Adaptor to enable multiple service providers to contribute towards a resilient SATCOM service that will also automate provisioning and improve network operational efficiency.