Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services

Leveraging Commercial Technologies for Defense Use

September 2000

In the information age, effective communications are critical to the success of modern military missions. Many existing communications systems can support military missions but often at a high cost. An affordable but not always feasible alternative is to leverage emerging commercial technologies to support Department of Defense (DOD) mission areas. The Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) project is a good example of MITRE working in conjunction with our long-time partner, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), to leverage existing commercial technology and upgrade it with the necessary military capabilities. Doing so provided the DOD with a secure, global, hand-held communications capability at a reasonable cost. It should be noted that, while this commercial leveraging strategy provides a cost-effective alternative to DOD custom development and deployment, successful implementation is dependent upon continued commercial system operation. The situation of the well publicized Iridium bankruptcy is a prominent example of the importance of commercial viability.

Hand-held communications technology took off in the early 1990s with the proliferation of commercial satellite systems and services. One particular technology, Mobile Satellite Services (MSS), had significant potential to satisfy the DOD’s need for secure, low-rate voice and data communications capability. The DOD also needed a communications system that would work between rapidly moving mobile forces and higher echelons. At that time, none of the commercial systems could provide type-I encryption, signaling protection, and other necessary military capabilities. However, these commercial systems did provide the foundation necessary for the DOD to build an enhanced MSS system.

The EMSS project was part of an overall DOD initiative to acquire commercial technologies and enhance them for military use. From the program’s inception in mid-1995, MITRE led the DISA engineering efforts to acquire and enhance these MSS services for the DOD. MITRE’s support centered on the system’s vulnerability assessment, enhancement identification, and enhancement design and assessment.

MITRE engineers worked extensively with the government communities during the early stages of the program to identify and consolidate user requirements. In concert with this analysis, MITRE performed commercial system capabilities and susceptibility analyses using early system design documents. A core MITRE engineering team, under highly exclusive nondisclosure agreements, then worked closely with system developers to refine system designs and to support the identification and design of necessary system enhancements.

"Enhancing commercial systems is not as straightforward as developing a system from scratch. You need to understand the development of the commercial system, how it will develop over time, and which pieces can be enhanced to provide the needed components," explains Mark Adams, the MITRE EMSS project lead. "Leveraging existing commercial technology for military use can be an extremely cost-effective alternative in providing the military with state-of-the-art communications technology."

In 1999, successful completion of the DOD MSS gateway facility launched the enhanced MSS services. The gateway facility provides connectivity between the satellite constellation and the land-based communications infrastructure. By utilizing this connectivity, the EMSS services can provide secure communications access to DOD users around the globe. DOD users access the system with a range of equipment including small hand-held user terminals, vehicle or ship-mounted terminals, and airborne-mounted terminals. Portions of the system are currently in use and expected to be fully operational this year.

DOD Initiatives: Influencing System Enhancements

To introduce the critical enhancements to the MSS, the DOD initiated a focused effort to encourage commercial developers, early in the system development process, to work with the DOD to incorporate the necessary secure global communications capability. Early DOD involvement was essential to avoid the commercial system designs from maturing without the desired DOD functionality. MITRE, as a DOD FFRDC, provided an effective engineering bridge between the government acquisition community and the commercial system developers. Figure 1 (below) illustrates the DOD model that allowed early influence in the design and development process. MITRE provided several strategic parallel efforts to support these DOD/industry collaborations. One MITRE engineering team analyzed and evaluated preliminary system designs for capabilities and susceptibilities. A second MITRE team consolidated the applicable DOD communications requirements and developed a potential concept of operations. These parallel efforts allowed DOD to quickly identify the enhancements that would support critical user operations.

Figure 1. DOD Model that Allows Early Influence in the Design and Development Process.

Engineering Bridge: Linking Government Requirements and Enhanced System Design

Prominent examples of engineering bridges linking government requirements and enhanced system design include efforts involving Iridium, Globalstar and ICO. In support of Iridium, MITRE engineers worked extensively with Motorola during the design and development of the Iridium system to acquire and enhance a commercial Iridium gateway and to develop a security module handset necessary for secure user services. In addition to supporting both clear and secure end-to-end voice and data communications, this gateway was designed to provide DOD user connectivity to the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN). In support of Globalstar, MITRE engineers worked extensively with Qualcomm and Space Systems Loral to evaluate system capabilities and susceptibilities. In addition, the MITRE team led a study and design effort to assess a deployable Globalstar gateway concept. Analysis activities included size, capacity, power considerations, frequency of use, coverage impacts, link performance, transport and siting considerations. MITRE engineers are currently leveraging their extensive domain expertise to evaluate the ICO system capabilities and identify potential enhancement opportunities.

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