Two New Nations Join Program to Provide SATCOM Support to NATO

Starting next calendar year Spain along with Luxembourg are set to join the other four NATO countries that offer satellite-based communications for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

 

Starting next this year Spain along with Luxembourg can join with four additional NATO countries who provide satellite-based communications in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as part of a satellite service project that was launched in 2020.

This month, the leaders of the oversight bodies in the six countries gathered just outside Washington, D.C., to examine the satellite services currently being offered by the project named NATO SATCOM Services 6th Generation, also known as NSS6G. At the meeting, they looked at the current service’s performance and any issues that might arise.

In these meetings, representatives from the NATO Communications and Information Agency and the six countries negotiated the final wording of the amending memorandum of understanding that establishes the guidelines for satellite communications services will be provided to NATO.

The amendment proposed is designed to permit Luxembourg as well as Spain in joining to U.S., France, Italy and the U.K. as the providers of military satellite communications to NATO.

Since the year 2005 NATO stopped operating and acquiring its own satellites, a few of which were inspired by designs that date back to the 1970s. In the end, NATO turned to its member state France, Italy and the U.K. to provide NATO forces with the satellite communication they required while carrying out activities. In 2020 it was the time that U.S. joined the existing team.

In the agreement under the agreement, the U.S. provides support with its “extremely high frequency,” or EHF transport service to NATO nuclear control and command, as well as “super-high frequency,” or SHF, capability from their national Wideband Global Satellite Communications System.

France and the U.K. and Italy provide UHF and SHF capacities through the Syracuse, Skynet, and Sicral constellations. Spain as well as Luxembourg will provide additional UHF and SHF capacity to the consortium through the Spainsat Next Generation and GovSat satellite constellations respectively. A total of around 12 military satellites will offer capabilities to NATO.

“These are at varying levels of protection,” said Brian Hughes, the current NSS6G Joint Services management office director in the international affairs department within the U.S. Space Systems Command. “It’s all military satellite communications, which means that it has resistance to nuclear effects and has resistance to jamming capabilities that commercial services generally don’t have.”

Hughes stated that satellite communications are offered to NATO by a combination of what’s known as “allocate and commit” and managed services.

“[Allocate and commit is] where this capacity is actually given to NATO and [NATO] can use it as it needs it,” Hughes explained. “And then, we have a managed access service where [NATO] makes a request at specific times that they need it, and we [the team of national providers] actually manage the service provided.”

The issue is not NATO nations that will directly utilize the capabilities provided by NSSG6, but NATO headquarters when it is involved in NATO-approved activities.

“NATO has, as an enterprise, its own requirements because it provides the headquarters functions, whether they’re static or deployed,” Hughes stated. “That SATCOM [satellite communications] is critical because NATO is providing the command-and-control function through SATCOM, which is absolutely necessary.”

Although the NSS6G consortium is responsible for the capability to use space, NATO itself provides the equipment its troops require on the ground, according to Nusret Yilmaz who is the SATCOM business unit manager within NATO’s NATO Communications and Information Agency.

“NATO owns the ground equipment,” Yilmaz stated. “All the end-user equipment, including the tactical radios, including the terminals for, let’s say, deployed communications and including the various sizes of transportable and deployable communication systems. These are owned by NATO. NATO is operating and maintaining [the ground systems]. These are organic capabilities of NATO. However, for the space segment, NATO doesn’t have any organic capability.”

The initial move of NATO away from its own space assets was both a cost-saving move as well as an attempt to allow NATO to to make use of the latest space-based technologies that NATO allies would deploy to use for their own purposes.

The inclusion to Spain along with Luxembourg to NSSG6 will increase the resilience of satellite communications capabilities.

“Since it is not only one nation, [but] multiple nations, there is also kind of resilience in the space segment,” Yilmaz explained. “There is recently a very high increase in demand for satellite communications. NATO has compensated for this increase in demand through various ground segment and user segment projects. Now through this MOU and amendment, NATO kind of makes sure this additional capacity is taken care of from the space segment perspective, as well.”

Mike Dean, who serves as the Defense Department’s Chief Information Office SATCOM chief and was the speaker for the conference this month. Dean stated that so far, NSS6G has been a fantastic model of collaboration and partnership between the four countries to offer satellite bandwidth and services to NATO and NATO members. The two additional partners will improve the collaboration.

“The addition of Luxembourg and Spain will build upon existing working relationships and the ongoing interactions we have with our International partners,” He added.

Dean has also spoken about the advantages from U.S. participation to the DOD.

“We are reimbursed for the services we provide to NATO,” he said. “We are then able to work with the U.S. Space Command and the services and use that money to help fund projects that will enhance the satellite communications services for our warfighters. It’s an excellent example of how a small investment can make a significant improvement in capability.”

NSS6G will begin the first 10 years of fully operational time that will continue until 2034’s end.