Gilat Satellite Networks incorporated manufacturers Raysat Antenna Systems and Wavestream as  key elements of the company’s strategy to beef up its overall capabilities and focus on civil government, defense and military markets. With these acquisitions now complete, the company is hoping to bring a number of new products to the market. Gilat CEO Amiram Levinberg spoke with Via Satellite about the company’s aggressive moves into the military and defense markets, possible future acquisitions, as well as new technologies the company hopes to rollout during the next year.

Via Satellite: What was your strategy behind your acquisitions of Raysat and Wavestream last year?

Levinberg: Both Wavestream and Raysat are strong players in the defense market, each with unique capabilities with many of their opportunities in the defense business. These acquisitions also gave us an entrance into other growth markets such as homeland security and satellite-on-the-move applications. As a result, we have become a much more diversified company and things have changed significantly for us this past year. We have added to our portfolio several technologies from the acquisitions, which we would like to introduce to system integrators supplying to the Pentagon. We also announced at the end of 2009 that we were establishing a dedicated research and development group to develop derivatives of our technologies aimed toward the military market. At SATELLITE 2011, we introduced a new military VSAT to support small dish solutions that are usually used in communications-on-the-move applications. It is based on innovative spread-spectrum technology that we think will give us an advantage for mobile applications.

Via Satellite: What capabilities would you like to add?

Levinberg: When it comes to Spacenet, we would want to expand our managed network capabilities. We introduced a network appliance called PrysmPro in the United States. PrysmPro is a technology that enables a service provider to offer a broader array of services and not just satellite communications and is particularly suited for situations where there is more than one connection to the Wide Area Network. For example, situations where you have DSL and satellite, or 3G and satellite, can be managed from a single device providing high-availability of service at a more attractive price to the user.
    We want to expand PrysmPro’s offerings and capabilities within the U.S. domestic market as well as introduce it into international markets. Spacenet plans to enhance its offerings in the area of managed network services organically. We will also be looking for additional capabilities that Spacenet currently does not have, whereby a small-scale acquisition can strengthen and complement our offering. Since we find these are common issues with other service providers in the international markets as well, we will be looking to expand our sales outside the United States.

Via Satellite: What new services are you planning to launch this year?

Levinberg: Besides introducing PrysmPro to international markets and expanding our defense portfolio, we will introduce a new product later this year, which is aimed at cellular and high-end services. It is a product optimized for high-bandwidth services.
   We also will have a new line of Wavestream products aimed to replace TWTs for the big broadcasters. It is a very interesting market because this market has been dominated by TWT to this point. Replacing TWT with solid0-state is a very interesting move and we foresee a very solid market there. We have had our first sales in this segment, and we hope to expand our success in 2011. We also plan to introduce new phased array antennas from Raysat Antenna Systems that are electronically steered. This technology is usually optimized for airborne communications, but it may be used for other applications as well. We will also introduce a new range of antennas with higher performance. 

Via Satellite: How much is the government market worth in Gilat’s Long-Term Strategy?

Levinberg: The U.S. government market is a very big market for satellite communications, estimated at about $4 billion. Since we had almost no activity in this sector it was a natural growth candidate for us. However, outside of the United States, military and homeland security ‘discovered’ satellite only fairly recently. This has since become a growing market, one that is a good fit for Gilat, which has a significant international presence.