Exploiting Commercial SATCOM: A Better Way

The Defense Department and the U.S. military have committed themselves to using commercial SATCOM as part of the overall information infrastructure for the Global Information Grid. Although efforts to dramatically increase the capacity of future MILSATCOM systems are under way, the military will rely on commercial satellite communications throughout the current decade and well into the second decade of the 21st century -- or longer. Congress, the General Accounting Office, and the Department of Defense DoD have long recognized the weaknesses in DoDs existing approach to leasing commercial SATCOM. Efforts to provide the benefits of better leasing practices to DoD continue. But no substantive change has as yet been forthcoming, not even the expedient of consolidating the leasing of each services requirements and presenting each services forecast requirements to industry in a coordinated manner through the Joint Staff or U.S. Strategic Command. The DoD is long overdue to revamp the methods it uses to obtain commercial SATCOM. The Defense Department should seize the initiative, coordinate with Congress, and adopt internal and external business practices that emulate commercial best practices. DoD should aggregate its total collective requirements for commercial satellite communications into a single set that Strategic Command can lease and manage on an enterprise basis. Recent industry innovations will permit DoD to enter into leases based on long-term rates for the complete set of its current and forecast commercial SATCOM requirements. Adoption of these initiatives would permit the commercial SATCOM industry to better understand and plan for meeting U.S. military requirements. Their adoption would permit all elements of DoD to obtain commercial satellite communications rapidly, reliably, and affordably.