AISR Missions on Intelsat EpicNG Ku-Band

Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems currently rely heavily on transponded satellites, both military and commercial at X-, Ku- and Ka-bands, for missions requiring beyond line of sight connectivity. Ku-band commercial satellites are the work-horse for both manned and unmanned Airborne ISR (AISR) operations today. In the future, C4ISR systems will require higher throughput, greater protection and improved affordability to align with future mission needs, mitigate threats, and fit within budgetary constraints. Intelsat Epic^NG satellites provide cost-effective, next-generation, Ku-band capabilities including spot beams, higher throughput, improved efficiencies, and protection using deployed infrastructure. In this paper, the Epic^NG architecture is described with comparisons to the legacy Ku-band systems and its application to the unique performance and mobility management needs of AISR systems. A detailed performance analysis is presented using representative AISR systems against a set of manned and unmanned mission/platform scenarios, with comparisons to legacy Ku-band and WGS Ka-band performance. It is shown that the Epic^NG Ku-band constellation offers unique performance and affordability opportunities for AISR missions and enables the next generation military Ku/Ka-band C4ISR infrastructure.