/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aviationweek.com%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2Fdefense_images%2FSatellites%2FWGS-USAF.jpg)
USAF Concept
Jan 25, 2012 By Amy Svitak - aviation week and space
technology
Paris - A mid-January agreement among five nations, including three from Europe, to buy shares in the U.S. Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) system exemplifies America’s success in an area where
Europe has thus far fallen short.
The agreement—signed by Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and New Zealand—affords these countries immediate access to WGS-reserved data frequencies in exchange for financing the U.S.
Air Force’s ninth WGS spacecraft.
Led by Canada, the five nations have agreed to contribute a combined $620 million out of a total of $1 billion needed to build, launch and operate the WGS-9 satellite over 14 years, with the
balance to be paid for by the U.S. Defense Department, according to a document presented by the U.S. Air Force during a Jan. 17 briefing on the five-nation commitment.
Overall, the agreement is worth approximately $10 billion, making it the Air Force’s largest space-based international procurement in financial value.
Such a relationship, where countries large and small combine resources to extend network capacity, is something Europe has until now been unable to realize. But that trend is slowly reversing as
a handful of European governments opt to pool and share military funding and resources under an EU proposal that is gradually gaining ground.
Claude-France Arnould, executive director of the European Defense Agency, says her organization is well aware of sovereignty and autonomy concerns among the EDA’s 26 member states. But with
military spending on the wane, pooling resources is critical to maintaining a credible defense.
“The question is no longer whether we should cooperate or not, it is now whether we want certain capabilities or not,” Arnould says. “Cooperation is no longer an option, it is a matter of
necessity, and even a matter of urgency.”
The benefits of sharing, as evidenced by WGS, are substantial. Canada currently spends $25 million a year on its satellite communications requirements through spot leases of commercial bandwidth.
But that figure is expected to increase significantly over the next two decades.
Under the WGS agreement, in exchange for a contribution of $337.3 million, the Canadian Forces will obtain 20 years of access to reserved frequencies for military communications systems in
theaters of operation across the globe.
Likewise, New Zealand expects to save millions with its WGS commitment. The country currently spends $3.4 million annually buying bandwidth on the spot market. New Zealand Defense Minister
Jonathan Coleman says joining WGS “will increase our access to satellite broadband more than twenty-fold, with guaranteed access and at a fixed price, ensuring better value for money.”
But in Europe, where nations spend a collective €50 million ($64 million) annually on purchases of commercial bandwidth, the notion of pooling and sharing has been slow to catch on. A tentative
first step came late last year when France, Italy, Poland, Romania and the U.K. combined resources under an EDA pilot project dubbed the European Satcom Procurement Cell (ESCPC) to purchase and
share C- and Ku-band satellite capacity to meet military communications requirements.
Although the initial funding pool is limited—up to €10 million drawn from participating nations to be spent over the next few years—the EDA hopes it will spur other member states to join ESCPC in
the near term, while drawing support for a broader plan to invest in a common European military satellite communications network down the road.
While small, the five-nation investment in ESCPC is promising, though the fact that it took nearly two years to get under way is not. Overall, the pilot project highlights the difficulties the
EDA faces in coaxing reluctant sovereign governments to forgo some autonomy in order to reap savings.
Currently, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. operate individual milsatcom networks. The EDA estimates that together these countries have spent as much as €8 billion to design, develop,
manufacture and operate a dozen satellites and 10 ground-control stations.
Recognizing the potential cost savings of a federated system, the agency is pitching a next-generation constellation to its members that could potentially save €1 billion by replacing the five
disparate systems. Dubbed SecTelSat, the program would use common requirements from participating nations, shared research and technology investments, coordinated acquisition among member
governments and industry, and pooling and sharing of operations. If the effort is begun this year, EDA anticipates such a network could be operational by 2020. But a decision needs to be made
soon, as three of Europe’s five unique milsatcom systems—France’s Syracuse 3, Italy’s Sicral and Spain’s Secomsat—are to be replaced before decade’s end.
/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.defpro.com%2Fdata%2Fgfx%2Fnews%2Ff21b59b60f958856a55913054f6d0a9c7084af81_big.jpg)
/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.defencetalk.com%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2FdStyle165%2Fscripts%2Ftimthumb.php%3Fsrc%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fcdn.defencetalk.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F04%2Fc-130j-usaf-europe.jpg%26w%3D365%26h%3D245%26zc%3D1)
/fdata%2F4220908%2Favatar-blog-1207340840-tmpphpbvDubc.jpeg){kind=avatar}
