Globalstar for the military

Globalstar, a new satellite-based, digital mobile communications service, is now beginning telephony field trials in the United States and in France. In addition to providing commercial service beginning the second quarter of 1999, Globalstar will also enable military warfighters, in even the most remote areas of the world, to connect with each other and back to rear echelons. Providing low-cost and reliable mobile satellite services (MSS) with diversity operations, Globalstar will be interoperable with existing local, long-distance, public, private, cellular, and DoD specialized networks. The DISA has identified a deployable MSS concept (i.e., deployment of a gateway to a regional conflict), for which Globalstar has the natural architecture. Globalstar is currently preparing to meet military-specific MSS service requirements-which include transportable gateways, netted broadcast nets, encrypted traffic circuits, DoD control-concurrently with full commercial operations. The paper describes the Globalstar system, the issues surrounding use of the commercial system by the warfighter, and military-specific operations, both in its native commercial employment, and as adapted for specific in-theater military operations, using a deployable gateway or alternatively fixed gateways