Military use of commercial satellites - a planning perspective

The significant increase in military and military support activities in the Middle East and South-West Asia has resulted in an increased demand for satellite capacity, a significant portion of which is being met by well-positioned commercial satellites located over the Indian Ocean, Africa, and South-West Asia. There are a number of challenges faced by satellite network planners who are asked to bridge this gap between military and commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) planning in the design and operation of military-support traffic on commercial satellites, and handle circumstances which call for certain special considerations which are not the norm in either the commercial industry, or the military SATCOM (MILSATCOM) world. This paper discusses some real-world planning challenges, and how they sometimes require the bending or breaking of conventional planning rules to come up with feasible plans.