US Air Force launches first of next generation wideband satellites

Colorado Springs: A single rocket launch Thursday has allowed the US Air Force to double the military''s space-based communications capabilities. The launch of the first Wideband Global SATCOM satellite, according to US Air Force officials, also begins an upgrade of a 25-year-old network of satellites.

Officials said that each one of the new $300 million spacecraft could carry ten times the amount of data as compared to its predecessors. "It will almost double the bandwidth available on all other military communication satellites," said Air Force Space Command''s Col Jim Wolf. As the Space Command''s director of navigation, command, control and communication, Col Wolf said the satellites would be controlled from the Schriever Air Force Base. The Army''s Space and Missile Defense Command at Peterson Air Force Base will operate the communications equipment aboard.

The new satellite is derived from a Boeing design for commercial communication satellites and can deliver computer data, voice transmissions and TV signals. The satellite operates a number of different antennas and can process far more signal frequencies than its predecessors.

For the defence services the launch of these satellites is the military equivalent of switching to broadband from dial-up Internet. The US military has been increasingly dependent on commercial communication satellites, for their own hardware is based on Cold War-era technologies that predate the military''s use of the Internet and video signals on the battlefield.

Officials point out that now, even the smallest of Army units in the field carry satellite-communications gear, and battalions and brigades use satellites for everything from secure video conferences to viewing data collected by unmanned spy planes.