IRIDIUM PROVIDES GLOBAL COMMUNICATION FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL (via I* thread)
(Space Business; 03/18/99)
Mar. 18, 1999 (SPACE BUSINESS NEWS, Vol. 17, No. 6 via COMTEX) -- What
seemed
to be an unachievable communication goal soon will be a reality for the
commercial sector. Motorola Inc.'s [MOT] service provider business, Motorola
Worldwide Information Network Services (M- WINS), has been certified to provide
the Defense Department (DoD) with mobile Iridium LLC [IRIDF] voice and paging
services by the end of the year. This agreement solidifies the ability that
the commercial sector can work with DoD in meeting its needs in secure
communications (SBN, Feb. 17).
"We sat down with the military early on when we were designing our system and
DoD elected to have their own gateway within the Iridium Network," said Ted
O'Brien, vice president of vertical markets for Iridium. "They brought their
needs to the table early on and were at the core of the design phase.
Together, we created a system that met their needs," he added.
From mission pilot to naval captain or U.N peacekeeper to field surgeon,
military communication will be channeled through the Hawaiian gateway and
obtained through the Defense Information Systems Agency(DISA).
The six-year contract, estimated at around $100 million, includes DoD's
dedicated gateway within the Iridium network, some infrastructure, handsets and
airtime. Once the agreement is final, a voice privacy module will be added to
the 638 commercial Motorola handsets ordered. The enhanced handset will
feature, among other things: Low power out/directional communication path for
low probability of intercept, detection and jamming; weather-resistant hardware
compliant with MILSTD 810; and cross-protocol roaming. Lt. Col. Harvey
Leister, USAF said each handset costs $3,000 and the security module is
estimated to be around the same price. "We went with Motorola because they met
our objective goals: global coverage including polar regions, voice privacy and
providing hand-held hardware, " he said. Motorola's features provided the EMSS
military capabilities expected by DoD when looking toward using commercial
services.
Military personnel will use the system just as civilians use it. Soldiers,
sailors and peacekeepers will buy the service just as they would if purchasing
a personal mobile phone service. The significant difference, and attractive
client element in the agreement, lies in the billing process. Motorola is
providing a bill consolidation clause, having the personnel's respective
command pay the phone bill.
Ron Taylor, vice president and general manager of Motorola Space Systems and
Services Division, said dealing with DoD's acquisition reform in merging this
type of intellectual property to his company's commercial service proved to be
challenging. Likewise Motorola remained flexible as plans went underway even
though they anticipated an adequate time frame for the project. Taylor said
they kept "internal communication" lines open, answered all of DoD's questions
and provided support from beginning to end. This proved to be key in
establishing a successful partnership.
A significant challenge, met by both Motorola and DoD in this agreement, in
is network control during times of military conflict. "We are treating this as
a commercial system and accept the limitations of control refusal should it
happen," said Leister, adding DoD will use its other systems. DoD views this
gateway as one more alternative venue at its disposal that meets the military
needs. DISA currently is identifying requirements and studying the
capabilities and limitations of a deployable MSS gateway to augment secure EMSS
communications.
Motorola hopes to grow its relationship with DoD through future ventures,
replicating what worked through this agreement model.
(Iridium, 202/326-5600; Motorola, 602/331-3662; DISA, 703/607- 6048.)
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Copyright Phillips Publishing, Inc.
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