|
Intelsat
Repositions
Satellite
to
Serve
Military
Units
in
Asia
&
Mideast
Intelsat
General
Corp.,
has
been
awarded
a
multiyear
contract
under
which
Intelsat
will
reposition
one
of
the
company’s
satellites
halfway
around
the
globe
to
serve
military
units
in
Iraq
and
Afghanistan.
Following
an
urgent
call
from
the
Pentagon’s
Joint
staff
on
February
6,
Intelsat
responded
with
a
solution
to
reposition
one
of
its
domestic
U.S.
satellites,
Galaxy
26,
to a
new
orbital
location
in
the
Indian
Ocean
region.
Intelsat
began
moving
Galaxy
26
from
its
orbital
slot
at
93º
W to
its
new
position
on
February
20,
once
the
existing
commercial
traffic
assigned
to
the
spacecraft
had
been
shifted
to
another
Intelsat
satellite,
Galaxy
25.
Intelsat
was
able
to
begin
drifting
the
Galaxy
26
satellite
into
its
new
orbital
position
only
two
weeks
after
the
Department
of
Defense
(DoD)
request,
a
demonstration
of
how
quickly
the
commercial
industry
can
respond
to
solving
critical
warfighter
requirements.
The
contract,
awarded
through
Artel
Inc.
as
part
of a
DoD
contract
known
as
the
DSTS-G
(Defense
Information
Systems
Network
Satellite
Transmission
Services
–
Global),
will
fill
a
military
bandwidth
void
supporting
UAV
surveillance
operations.
The
repositioned
Intelsat
satellite
will
support
launch
and
flight
operations
of
Unmanned
Aerial
Vehicles
(UAVs)
deployed
in
the
war
zones,
as
well
as
other
U.S.
and
NATO
military
operations
in
an
area
reaching
from
Germany
to
Southeast
Asia.
“One
of
the
key
advantages
of
the
Intelsat
fleet
is
its
scale
and
flexibility,”
said
Kay
Sears,
President
of
Intelsat
General.
“This
is
the
third
time
we
have
been
able
to
reposition
one
of
our
satellites
into
a
new
orbital
location
to
support
critical
operations
on
the
ground
in
these
two
vital
regions.
Moving
this
satellite
to
the
Indian
Ocean
region
will
prevent
the
disruption
of a
range
of
important
military
activities
in
that
area.”
The
contract
calls
for
up
to
432
MHz
of
bandwidth
using
12
Ku-band
transponders
operating
on
the
Galaxy
26
satellite,
which
had
most
recently
been
serving
North
America.
The
satellite,
using
wide-beam
capability,
can
support
up
to
40
UAV
sorties
simultaneously.
“This
move
is
of
particular
importance,
since
we
did
not
want
any
service
interruptions
to
the
DoD
missions
and
there
was
no
other
capacity
available
to
fulfill
these
requirements
without
this
bold
move
by
Intelsat,”
said
Abbas
Yazdani,
President
and
CEO
of
ARTEL.
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