Despite a slowdown in government spending, milsatcom remains a market of extremes. While it is clear governments around the world are looking for more creative solutions to fill their bandwidth needs, demands for bandwidth continues to increase. So, while the market is proving tough for all players across the value chain, there are still opportunities to be had, even if they are not at the scale of years past.

In this e-letter, we put the microscope on the hosted payload market again, as we have recently held our Hosted Payload Summit in Washington, D.C. While the event was impacted by the lack of government attendees due to the federal government dispute, it was still a key conference to measure the potential impact of hosted payloads in the U.S. government sector. Via Satellite’s Managing Editor, Veronica Magan, who attended the event, gives us the lowdown on what happened there.

Our executive Q&A is with Patrick Wood of Astrium where he talks about the significance of the Skynet 5 program, launched 10 years ago, and what is next for the United Kingdom’s milsatcom strategy.

While there are no indicators that the milsatcom market will recover in the short-term, it remains a key one for satellite players to monetize. While the future is uncertain, the demands for bandwidth indicate the market will not slowly fade away.