Wideband Gapfiller System

The Wideband Gapfiller satellites will provide near-term continuation and augmentation of the services currently provided by the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) and the Global Broadcast Service (GBS) Ka services currently provided by GBS payloads on UFO satellites. The new Wideband Gapfiller satellites will complement the DSCS III Service Life Enhancement Program (SLEP) and GBS payloads, and offset the eventual decline in DSCS III capability. Together these assets will provide wideband services during the transition period between today's systems and the advent of the Objective X/Ka wideband system or Advanced Wideband System (AWS) in 2008. This combination of the Wideband Gapfiller Satellites, DSCS satellites, GBS payloads, wideband payload and platform control assets, and earth terminals operating with them has been referred to as the Interim Wideband System (IWS). WGS will support wideband military satellite communications services beginning about the year 2004. It will provide services to the US Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defense for Canada as well as other Government and Allied users under unstressed conditions. The Gapfiller System will support continuous 24 hour per day wideband satellite services to tactical users and some fixed infrastructure users. Limited protected services will be provided under conditions of stress to selected users employing terrestrial modems capable of providing protection against jamming. The combined wideband satellite communications system consists of space vehicles of multiple types, control terminals and facilities, and user terminals. The Wideband Gapfiller Satellite System is limited to the Gapfiller satellites and associated control equipment and software that augment currently existing facilities. The space segment will support communication services in two military frequency bands: Xband and Ka-band. The Wideband Gapfiller Satellite payload shall be capable of supporting at least 1.2 Gbps aggregate simplex throughput. The Gapfiller satellites will operate in X band and in WGS Broadcast Ka band, similar to the Phase II GBS in service today, in order to interoperate with existing and new X band and GBS terminals. The Gapfiller satellites will also provide a new two-way military Ka-Band capability to support the expected military mobile/tactical two-way Ka terminal population with greatly increased system capacity. Each Wideband Gapfiller Satellite orbital configuration will provide services from 65 North latitude to 65 South latitude and for all longitudes accommodated within the field of view of the satellite. As an objective, the satellite will provide services to 70 North latitude. Xband services will augment services provided by DSCS III satellites. The Ka-band services will augment broadcast service provided by GBS payloads on UHF Follow-On satellites; the Ka-band services will also support two-way network services besides broadcast. The Gapfiller satellites also will support services that require crossbanded connectivity: X-band uplinks to Ka-band downlinks and Ka-band uplinks to X-band downlinks. All Gapfiller satellite configurations will be of a functionally identical design within each orbit position. The satellite system consists of at least three geosynchronous satellite configurations and ground equipment and software associated with Gapfiller payload and platform control. The Gapfiller satellites in pre-launch configuration with orbit insertion subsystem will be designed to accommodate volume and mass constraints of an MLV-class EELV design with a 4-meter fairing. The total launch weight of the 1) Gapfiller satellite including sufficient fuel for mission life and orbit insertion and 2) launch vehicle adapter shall be less than or equal to 11,000 pounds.

Each Gapfiller satellite shall have a design life of at least 12 years in geostationary orbit. Each Gapfiller satellite shall have an on-orbit mean mission duration (MMD) of at least 10 years. Each Gapfiller satellite shall be designed to accommodate at least five years of ground storage prior to launch without affecting on-orbit MMD. During the absence of a valid command link, the satellite shall be capable of operating for at least 30 days without ground intervention-including execution of stored north-south and east-west stationkeeping commands. Gapfiller will provide an increase in access for both transportable/mobile and fixed users. At the same time, the expected number of Gapfiller satellites alone will not provide full 65N-to65S worldwide coverage across all intended coverage areas and all longitudes. There will be a continuing need for these users to access the Gapfiller satellites and the two or more DSCS III SLEPs to provide worldwide coverage. The Gapfiller satellites will serve as the means to continue and increase the capability of wideband services until the introduction of the Objective or Advanced Wideband System. The Gapfiller satellites must either be backward compatible with, or allow for the affordable upgrade of, the existing terminal populations in use with the DSCS and GBS systems. The Gapfiller satellites will support a variety of network topologies that include broadcast, hub-spoke, netted, and point-to-point connectivities. Limited protection against jamming or interference will, in general, only be possible for those communications networks that employ modems with modulation schemes capable of providing protection against jamming. In certain situations, gain discrimination that may be inherent in the design and emplacement of the Gapfiller satellite antenna patterns may also provide some measure of protection against jamming and interference sources located at various distances from friendly forces. A Wideband Gapfiller Satellite will be capable of providing coverage for terminals in several distinct regions located anywhere in the Earth field of regard. The distinct geographic regions are contained within the field of regard. The density of terminals and networks in these regions can vary according to the distance from the focal area of a conflict or operation. The total number of coverage areas defined here will contain focal areas in a theater as well as regions outside the theater that support operations therein. The Gapfiller satellites will support Ka-band terminals located in several Narrow Coverage Areas and in at least one Expanded Narrow Coverage Area. The Gapfiller satellites will provide two-way and broadcast services within Narrow Coverage Areas to deployed tactical forces in theater as well as to fixed gateways, broadcast injection sites, satellite control sites, and out-of-theater tactical users such as air bases and naval battle groups. The Expanded Narrow Coverage Area is several times larger than the Narrow Coverage Area. Protection of Gapfiller satellite communication services against electronic attack (e.g., jamming) and electronic support (e.g., signal interception) will be provided by the Universal Modem (UM) operating at select user terminals. Similarly, protection of Gapfiller satellite inband command links will be provided via the frequency and geographical diversity of the command channels and SC2C locations as well as by Government furnished cryptographic equipment operating within the Gapfiller configuration and control elements at the X-band and Ka-band control terminals. Additional protection will be provided by the format and protocols implemented within the command channels to ensure that only "valid" commands are sent and received. A command is "valid" if it can be successfully decrypted and decoded by the satellite.

As the military moves toward the Objective Force, satellite communications on-the-move (SATCOM OTM) becomes a key element in maintaining continuous waifighter communications. The Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS) will operate at X and Ka-band and offers great near-term potential to fill the SATCOM OTM gap that exists today. This paper addresses the general mobile ground segment requirements including channel specifications; noise power generation and satellite transponder gain states; system operational limitations, and how satellite operations can address potential solutions at Ka-band. The paper includes appropriate background material, practical satellite link calculation results and examples of small aperture terminals, suitable for OTM operation, over the WGS.

Wideband Gapfiller System

Satellite Design

The satellite system consists of at least three geosynchronous satellite configurations and ground equipment and software associated with Gapfiller payload and platform control. The Gapfiller satellites in pre-launch configuration with orbit insertion subsystem will be designed to accommodate volume and mass constraints of an MLV-class EELV design with a 4-meter fairing. The total launch weight of the 1) Gapfiller satellite including sufficient fuel for mission life and orbit insertion and 2) launch vehicle adapter shall be less than or equal to 11,000 pounds. The WGS satellites will be in geosynchronous Earth orbit, occupied by objects orbiting at an altitude of 22,238 miles with an orbital period of about 24 hours. The WGS satellite fuel budget accounts for a final end-of-life (i.e., disposal) boost to a geosynchronous disposal orbit at least 300 km above the operational altitude for geosynchronous satellites. The most likely orbital positions for the three WGS satellites are 60 East, 175 East and 12 West. All Gapfiller satellite configurations will be of a functionally identical design within each orbit position. Each Gapfiller satellite shall have a design life of at least 12 years in geostationary orbit. Each Gapfiller satellite shall have an on-orbit mean mission duration (MMD) of at least 10 years. Each Gapfiller satellite shall be designed to accommodate at least five years of ground storage prior to launch without affecting on-orbit MMD. During the absence of a valid command link, the satellite shall be capable of operating for at least 30 days without ground intervention-including execution of stored north-south and east-west stationkeeping commands. The Boeing 702 satellite is the world leader in capacity, performance and cost-efficiency. Enabling technologies for the advanced 702 design are the xenon-ion propulsion system (XIPS), highly efficient triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells, and deployable radiators with flexible heat pipes.

WGS combines unique commercial spacecraft capabilities that Boeing has developed, including phased array antennas and digital signal processing technology, into a powerful, flexible architecture. Based on the Boeing 702 bus, the satellite will have a dry mass of more than 3,000 kg and will produce more than 11 kilowatts of power at the end of its 14-year design life. The system provides tremendous operational flexibility and delivers the needed capacity, coverage, connectivity and control in support of demanding operational scenarios. XIPS is 10 times more efficient than conventional bipropellant systems. Four 25-cm thrusters remove orbit eccentricity during transfer orbit operations and are used for orbit maintenance and to perform station change maneuvers as required throughout the mission life. XIPS engines are produced by Boeing Electron Dynamic Devices. Deployable radiators with flexible heat pipes provide substantially more radiator area, resulting in a cooler, more stable thermal environment for both bus and payload. This increases component reliability and reduces performance variations over service life. The payload block diagram X-band and Ka-band antenna suites are interconnected via the digital channelizer to provide the unique flexibility and connectivity of WGS. The high efficiency solar cell Dual Use Science and Technology Program (DUST) has developed single crystal solar cells with record high efficiencies and lower dollar per watt costs than any previous multijunction technology. These cells are baselined on all US military spacecraft now in the acquisition cycle. This work was performed from FY99-03 under a joint AFRL/DARPA/Spectrolab/EMCORE effort to develop the highest possible efficiency space solar cells. When this program began the state of the art in multijunction (MJ) solar cells was 24% efficiency in production lots and approximately 25.5% best cell efficiency. By mid FY02 both Spectrolab and EMCORE were offering 27.5% production cells and 29-30% best cell efficiencies. In addition to these performance improvements, better production processes have resulted in a 20% reduction in dollars/watt cost of the cells. These solar cell products are by far the best in the world, completely dominating the domestic military, civil, and commercial markets, as well as being selected for many foreign spacecraft. Their rapid insertion into current US military satellite programs attests to their mission-enabling qualities. For example the Advanced EHF and Wideband Gapfiller systems, the follow-on programs to Milstar, along with certain classified programs, are spacecraft that were required to transition to the EELV class of launchers from the Titan IV used by their predecessors. The high performance solar cells developed by this DUST program enabled that transition without a loss in available power that would have otherwise resulted from the necessary decrease in solar array area. This has been critical to programs that have been required to step down from a Titan IV launch vehicle to an EELV, which has 33% less shroud volume.

Canada joins WGS; So do Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and New Zealand; Successful launch of WGS F4, 1st block II sat. (Jan 19/12) The US military needs a bigger data firehose. In an era of streaming data from proliferating UAVs and other persistent surveillance platforms, and the need for control of those systems anywhere in the world, bandwidth is almost as important as fuel. Commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) can fill some of the gaps, but its expensive, and may not be available when needed. The Wideband Gapfiller SATCOM (now Wideband Global SATCOM) program began as a way to ease these problems in the near term, using a derivative of an existing commercial satellite, alongside secure satellite efforts like AEHF. That role expanded after the T-SAT programs cancellation, as AEHF and WGS became the twin pillars of US military communications. Satellite numbers increased, and some American allies are becoming part of these programs. WGS is a set of 13-kilowatt spacecraft based upon Boeings model 702 commercial satellite. These satellites will support the USAs warfighting bandwidth requirements, supporting tactical C4ISR (command, control, communications, and computers; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance); battle management; and combat support needs. Upon its 2007 launch into geosynchronous orbit, WGS Flight 1 became the U.S. Department of

Defenses highest capacity communication satellite. WGS F4, scheduled for launch in January 2012, will offer further improvements. This is DIDs FOCUS Article covering the WGS programs specifications, budgets, travails, international partnerships, and contracts, with links to additional research materials