Constellations and Continuity – Armada International

The European Union has taken an important step forward to expand secure satellite communications bandwidth to its membership for military and government communications.

As of late February, the European Union’s Government Satellite Communications (EUGOVSATCOM) provision is operational, according to a statement published by the European Commission. The Commission is the EU’s executive arm proposing legislation and applying the Union’s laws and policies. According to a primer produced by the commission, EUGOVSATCOM pools bandwidth on sovereign secure, government communications satellites owned by EU states and shares this across the membership. Bandwidth provided by some EU based commercial operators, such as Eutelsat, also form part of the pooled resource.

The EUGOVSATCOM initiative means that member states without sovereign SATCOM can access secure satellite communications without having to acquire their own satellites and constellations. The initiative also provides an alternative to EU members having to lease secure bandwidth from commercial third parties. A reliance on the latter can be risky should commercial operators choose to reduce, or eliminate, bandwidth in times of crisis or war. Alongside EU members, Norway and Iceland can use EUGOVSATCOM provision. As the commission’s primer continues, Ukraine could join the initiative in the future.

Ground element

Users access the constellations via the initiative’s ground-based infrastructure component known as GOVSATCOM hub which is supervised by the EU’s Space Programme Agency (EUSPA). The GOVSATCOM hub performs a key function as it will match SATCOM demand with the best-placed satellite or constellation to provide the requested service. Alongside furnishing government and military satellite communications, EUGOVSATCOM will assist EU agencies like FRONTEX, the EU’s border and coastguard agency, along with law enforcement, civil protection organisations and diplomatic missions.

As the EUSPA told Armada via a written statement EUGOVSATCOM “is not a constellation but rather a communications system-of-systems”. Communications satellites are provided by five nations, namely France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain to furnish SATCOM services. Details of these satellites, and the SATCOM frequencies they provide, are detailed in the table below:

Sovereign Government/Military Communications Satellites by Nation

The GOVSATCOM hub provides two ground stations to uplink and downlink traffic. Users do not need to acquire any dedicated SATCOM terminals to access EUGOVSATCOM services. Instead, existing terminals can be employed without modification. Countries providing bandwidth to EUGOVSATCOM can access new satellites and/or constellations as legacy systems are replaced. Moreover, it is possible that other EU nations beyond the five listed above will be able to join as and when they acquire satellites and constellations. Looking toward the future, the EUSPA expects to incorporate the European Union’s forthcoming Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) capability. This will be integrated into EUGOVSATCOM when available. More details concerning IRIS² can be found here.

Strategic capability

EUGOVSATCOM represents the advent of an important strategic capability for the European Union according to the EUSPA’s written statement: “The strength of EUGOVSATCOM is precisely that it is a dual-use capability: It supports defence needs, but also the day-to-day work of civilian authorities who require secure, resilient communication to protect citizens and operate in difficult environments … especially when terrestrial networks are damaged or unavailable”. Furthermore, “(h)aving a European capability means (the safeguarding of) sensitive information, … continuity of government operations (and ensures) that essential services function even when terrestrial networks are disrupted” the statement continued.

by Dr. Thomas Withington