NEW YORK–Military use of commercial satellite capacity will continue at a substantial pace for at least the next five years, even as the U.S Department of Defense races to develop four dedicated satellite systems of its own.

“The demand for commercial satellite capacity will remain strong even after dedicated satellite systems come online,” said Maj. General Dennis Moran, director/information operations, network and space for the U.S. Army. “We are looking into changing the law that will permit the military to purchase long-term contracts [rather than buying satellite time on shorter-term increments].” Moran made his comments here today during a keynote address at the Satcon ’04 conference.

The four systems are: 1) the Wideband Gapfiller constellation launching in 2005, a Ka-, X-band system. 2) the Advanced EHF system launching in 2007-08 that will provide protected communications for the DoD. 3) the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), launched in 2010-11 to provide mobile satcom services to the armed forces. 4) T-Sat, the most- important system, that won’t be launched until the 2012 timeframe.

Moran said the four planned military-owned and -operated satellite systems will reduce the military’s demand for commercial satellite capacity from the current 80-percent level to roughly 50 percent by 2010 or 2011.