The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
XM Radio Goes to War
by James Dunnigan
July 10, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
The U.S. Department of Defense has a major communications
problem. Since combat troops were first allowed to use satellite
communications, on a large scale, in 2003, the grunts have made it clear that
they want to keep their satcom. The trouble is, the Department of Defense can’t
afford it. Or maybe they can, by plugging into the XM Radio network.
Satellite communications made a major impression when used
in over 3,000 “Blue Force Tracker” (BFT) radios during the 2003 Iraq
operations. The same gear was distributed to American troops in Afghanistan a
little earlier. BFT was basically a combination of satcom link and GPS.
Commanders who had it could look at their laptop display and see where they,
and every other BFT user is, all over the Middle East and Afghanistan. Not only
that, but BFT users could IM (Instant Message) each other. This was a
revolutionary combat tool, making it much easier to coordinate operations, and
avoid friendly fire incidents. After that first use, infantry officers reported
to their superiors, with an “I will kill for this” look in their eyes, that
they had to have more of it. Satcom was more reliable than any earlier radio
technology. It saved lives and gave American troops another edge in
combat.
But satcom is expensive. The Department of Defense
satcom bill is headed for over ten billion dollars a year. And its got no place
to go but up, way up. It would be worse had not the Department of Defense
bailed out the bankrupt Iridium satellite phone network in 2000. This gave the
Department of Defense a decade of low cost (about 25 cents a minute) satcom
use. Now, the Department of Defense has figured out how to use the new digital
radio networks to deliver low cost satcom. While satellite based radio, like
XM, are one way, a lot of the military satcom traffic is essentially one way.
New information is always being sent out, like maps and pictures. The XM
network is expanding it’s coverage from just North America, to other parts of
the world. This will enable it to better service its new customer. The first
application of the XM network will be the Mobile Enhanced Situational Awareness
Network (MESA). This would use a dedicated channel on XM’s satellite network,
and would send data only to special receivers (used by troops or emergency
personnel). These would be nearly identical to the usual XM receivers, with a
modification to receive the special signal.
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