ViaSat 2 Satcom Services Now Available for Military Applications

Rendition of the ViaSat 2 satellite. Photo: ViaSat.

Viasat has announced the availability of ViaSat 2 satellite communications service for government, defense and military applications. The service leverages ViaSat 2, along with innovations in ground networking technologies.

Earlier this month, Viasat conducted a ViaSat 2 satcom system demonstration — attended by representatives from the U.S. armed forces. The speeds on the ViaSat 2 satellite system exceeded 100 Mbps during the demonstration day. This allows users to transmit bandwidth-intensive, media-rich cloud applications, such as 4K and HD video streaming, to thousands of electronic devices simultaneously. It will also enable warfighters to capture and send Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) sensor data; transmit live two-way video conferencing and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls; as well as conduct Command and Control (C2) and Situational Awareness (SA) communications as prioritized traffic to many more platforms in a region.

According to Viasat, resiliency is provided through the ViaSat 2 system’s anti-interferer performance, Viasat’s Satellite Access Node (SAN) gateway diversity, seamless satellite switching and assured pattern re-routing to operate through gateway failures, and through Viasat’s Active Cyber Defense, which automatically detects, mitigates and attributes Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks against the network’s infrastructure. This will enable mission-critical communication packets to be protected and distributed safely, even in highly contested combat environments, the company stated.