An investigation of the military applications of commercial personal satellite-communications systems

This paper provides a summary of the results of a four-nation workshop that investigated the military use of commercial satellite-based personal communications systems (SPCS). Military considerations and nine potential application areas are described. Of the fifteen vulnerability of SPCS examined in the workshop, six of the more important vulnerabilities (jamming, detection, position location, interception, communications security, and system and network control), and four limitations (capacity, coverage, user terminals, and regulatory) are discussed. A method for comparing and rating SPCS systems for military purposes is presented followed by an example comparing six planned or operational SPCS systems