NSR Report: Military Satcom Favors Traditional Connectivity, but Emerging Technologies Remain on the Roadmap
December 12, 2017
NSR’s newly released Government and Military Satellite Communications, 14th Edition report finds ongoing and expanding revenue growth across the global government and military markets. Enabling connectivity on legacy platforms will continue to be the name of the game. Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Comms-on-the-Pause, and Maritime will comprise more than 60% of revenue growth over the next decade. With nearly $9B in retail revenues projected by the end of 2026, questions remain over the role of future proprietary military capacity, how a refocus on Asia Pacific will shape deployment strategies, and which market/s provide the best role for commercially-sourced vs. military provided connectivity.
“Commercial providers are steadily moving forward in introducing new technology, products, and services into the government and military markets,” states report author and Senior Analyst, Brad Grady. “Facing continual pressure to reduce price, uncertainty around the role of MILSATCOM systems, and a quickly evolving threat matrix, the market is shifting towards mobility-first, commercially augmented capability.” Overall, NSR finds managed services will play a larger role, HTS will be adopted, and some acquisition is likely to happen. However what will be the mix between government and commercially provided connectivity or how many emerging opportunities will be ‘new requirements’ remains to be seen.
As sequestration still impacts readiness levels today, HTS will be a growing option for new ships, airframe, and locations. Government & Military customers will be slow to adopt these higher throughput offerings, but they will be in-step with the commercial markets in achieving capacity pricing declines for both FSS and HTS satellite capacity. This will help boost uptake and chart a path towards managed services for satellite providers to remain viable partners in the market.