The UK is to develop a new generation of military communications satellites rather than enter the Trimilsatcom collaborative programme with France and Germany (Flight International, 19-25 August).
When he announced the Ministry of Defence decision on 12 August, Lord Gilbert, Minister of State for Defence Procurement, explained: "The UK has been considering a range of procurement options for meeting our Skynet 5 requirement for future military satellite communications. We have been keen to investigate the scope for collaboration with our allies on this important new programme. For some time this was a preferred option."
Gilbert concluded, however, that "-we will be unable to rely with assurance on collaborative processes being able to meet the UK's needs with respect to an in-service date before our existing [Skynet 4] satellites go out of service".
Gilbert added that the UK is still a strong supporter of collaboration in equipment procurement, and that the decision to abandon Trimilsatcom "-has not been taken lightly".
The UK MoD has been working towards the procurement of a new military communications satellite system, known generically as Skynet 5, for some time. Skynet 5 is the name given to the system requirement, rather than that of a specific satellite system such as the operational Skynet 4 fleet, but as the decision has been made to pursue a national programme, the new system is likely to take this name.
The Skynet 4 series provides SHF and UHF communications for military users with fixed, mobile and the lighter man-portable terminals on land, at sea and in the air. Three Stage 1 satellites were launched in 1988 and 1990 and the first of three enhanced Stage 2 craft, Skynet 4D, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in January (Flight International, 26 November-2 December, 1997).
The MoD had three options for Skynet 5: The national satellite system, procured and operated as a proprietary defence asset in the conventional manner; to privatise the system and buy its services under a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative; or the MoD's initial preferred approach, Trimilsatcom (see box).
In addition to considering Trimilsatcom, the UK continued to assess tenders for the national proprietary and PPP options. National proposals are for two geostationary orbiting satellites and one ground spare, with associated ground anchor stations and control centres. The system would cover Europe, the Middle East, Africa, parts of Asia, the Atlantic Ocean and eastern USA. Fully redundant and interoperable with US communications systems, it would operate in the EHF, SHF and UHF frequency bands.
Consortia, including Lockheed Martin and Matra Marconi Space (MMS) will conduct studies to define the UK's future national space communications needs, either as a conventional procurement programme or as a privately operated fleet selling its services to the MoD.
Lockheed Martin's choice of UK partner for these project definition studies is a former Plessey unit of BAe Defence Systems. The US company will propose using a Lockheed Martin A2100 series spacecraft bus for Skynet 5 and would, if necessary, link with British Telecom to develop a privatised system. BAe Defence built the Skynet 4 ground management systems and worked on Trimilsatcom proposals with Alcatel. Subcontractors would include TRW and Lockheed Martin subsidiaries. MMS' proposed privatised national system would be operated with the UK's Logica and Serco.
Despite making a decision to proceed with a national system, the MoD will continue to study the PPP solution. One possibility for the commercialised system is that its operator could be allowed to sell surplus capacity to other, non-military, users. The successful operator would also presumably own the orbital slots in geostationary orbit. Such a commercially operated service would have to be flexible, with the ability to respond to crisis situations without compromise. The UK MoD may also explore the option of purchasing commercial services, on civil satellites such as Inmarsat, for non-sensitive communications traffic.
Source: Flight International
