The ST Engineering iDirect team was excited to be in person at Global MilSatCom 2021, where leaders in the military Satcom community came together to discuss how to handle the increasingly demanding nature of today’s battlefield as both near-peer and irregular adversaries continue to challenge the status quo. A dominant theme at the conference was the concept of multi-domain integration (MDI), which the UK military defines as “the posturing of military capabilities in concert with other instruments of national power, allies and partners.” In the most simplistic terms, it is about ensuring that every part of defense can work seamlessly together, along with other government departments as well as allies and partners, to deliver a desired outcome and defend the nation.
The success of MDI lies in the immediate accessibility and seamless operation of the UK MoD’s data and digital equipment. Previously, although the Armed Forces have had access to the very latest equipment, the platforms have been siloed and worked in isolation. MDI aims to transform this by ensuring that data from every platform, whether that’s a satellite, ship, aircraft, drone or land-based system, can be collated, analyzed and made available so that the bigger picture is visible to decision makers.
With the expansion of the warfighting domains, including land, sea, air, space and cyberspace, comes the increasing complexity of threats and interferences. By embracing the latest Satcom innovations, militaries can effectively enable and facilitate multi-domain integration to gain the operational advantage and combat their adversaries.
Our Head of Government and Defense Strategy, Koen Willems, presented ways to mitigate vulnerabilities and increase the resilience of MilSatcom networks on Day 1. Koen spoke about taking a multi-layered secure and resilient approach to achieve seamless operations and information assurance. With the convergence of the space segment, ground segment, user segment and service delivery, it is increasingly important to consider the adoption of enabling technologies such as advanced mobility capabilities, hybrid networks, 5G, cloud, edge computing, orchestration and software defined networks. Implementing gateway redundancy, diversifying your network, and implementing next-generation secure waveforms are all examples of this.
At the ST Engineering iDirect stand, we showcased some of our latest defense solutions including our quick-to-deploy Starlight 1000 Manpack Terminal, our compact and portable Tactical Hub, as well as our portfolio of SWaP-optimized satellite modem boards: the 950mp, iQ 200, and SMB3315.
