Small satellites – a communication option for the Swedish Armed Forces?

The Swedish Armed Forces have used satellite communication (satcom) for many years, mainly for international missions. In the future, satcom is expected to become more important also for domestic use and in higher conflict levels. Today, the Armed Forces use commercial contracts for satcom. This means that availability and control over the information cannot be guaranteed, as the Armed Forces do not have full control over neither the satellites nor the ground based infrastructure. In this report, we analyze to what extent a system based on small satellites, and therefore being less costly, can be used for the communication needs of the Swedish Armed Forces. The study will also give an overview of the technology and trends for small satellites, and whether any technology leaps are expected to change the current developments. A large number of satellites, in the order of hundreds of satellites, is needed in order to get continuous communication coverage. It is not possible to get coverage of a limited regional area only using the orbits suitable for small satellites. The study therefore suggests, as a base for discussions, a system based on one or a few satellites. Such a system enables global opportunities to transfer information using socalled store-forward. A Store-forward satellite receives and stores a message when the satellite passes by a ground transmitter. When the satellite reaches to the designated receiver, the message is relayed to the ground terminal. The studied system provides national guaranteed communication, with control of all of the system infrastructure. Regional real-time communication, such as speech or data, can also be relayed via the satellite between ground terminals that are located within the satellite's foot print.