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You will soon be able to video-chat from anywhere in the world thanks to satellite-based cellular networks. While FaceTiming grandma from the backcountry will win you kudos, this new space technology also is poised to upend the nature of military conflict.
A breakthrough has emerged in the past 12 months: SpaceX’s Starlink and AST SpaceMobile, two pioneers in the realm, have demonstrated the ability to place video calls using unmodified cellphones via their low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite networks. The space-based networks are nascent but promise to shower 4G, and eventually 5G, cellular coverage over dead zones across the Earth in the next few years.
- Cellular satcom networks could enable human supervision of autonomous warfare
- Mobile phone components have size, weight and power advantages
That kind of broadband connectivity for small drones and loitering munitions, especially after the vehicles have flown beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), is set to change the way wars are fought. Paired with increasingly long-range propulsion systems and rapidly improving autonomy and edge computing, uncrewed air vehicles (UAV) are likely to take on new missions at ranges previously unthought of.
Take, for example, PteroDynamics’ P5 Transwing cargo drone. In February, the company won a small contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a P5 demonstrator that will have a minimum range of 400 nm while carrying a 50-lb. payload. The service notes that 90% of the cargo items it delivers weigh less than 50 lb., and it expects that small drones will offer greater flexibility.
The P5 cargo drone flies BVLOS using autonomous flight control and navigation systems that can work in GPS-denied environments by relying on inertial dead reckoning, laser or radar altimeters, and light detection, altimetry and velocimetry technology.
PteroDynamics has also been experimenting with connecting and controlling its Transwing drones via SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, says Tim Whitehand, the company’s vice president of engineering.
“When the Starlink Mini [antenna] came out, I went to Home Depot and I bought one,” Whitehand says. “Over a weekend, I integrated it on the airplane.” The UAV flew using the satellite communications (satcom) soon after, achieving 5 MB uploads and downloads, he adds.
Similarly, Boeing-owned Insitu said in November it had installed a flat-panel antenna about the size of a large computer tablet on the back of its Integrator Extended-Range UAV. The antenna connects to LEO satellite constellations, allowing the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone to fly up to 2,000 nm—about the distance from Guam to Okinawa, Japan, Insitu points out.
If PteroDynamics and Boeing are examples of what is possible with conventional flat-panel terminals, drones that carry diminutive cellular antennas and modems connected to LEO satellites could be transformative.
Cellular components have size, weight and power advantages. Using cellphone technology, which is produced en masse for the consumer market, reduces manufacturing and R&D costs, too. Since consumer electronics are advancing at a much faster pace than purpose-built military hardware, the former offers more upside.
Even at shorter ranges, space-based cellular networks might be useful. Multiple consumer quadcopters made by Parrot, DJI and SkyDio use cellular chipsets to connect drones to terrestrial 4G or 5G networks.
Space-based cellular services could be part of a multisource communications structure for drones, providing a backup or means to balance data traffic, says Jason Gunter, director of special programs at Red Cat. In November, Red Cat-owned Teal Drones won a contract to deliver thousands of small quadcopters for the U.S. Army’s Tranche 2 of the Short-Range Reconnaissance program.
But most of all, satellite-based cellular broadband is useful for BVLOS operations, including long-range strikes. Consider Anduril’s Altius 700M and AeroViroment’s Switchblade 600 loitering munitions have ranges of more than 100 mi. and 56 mi., respectively. With cellular satcom, such weapons could reach more than halfway across the Taiwan Strait to hit an incoming amphibious invasion force.
Moreover, space-based cellular networks are coming online at the same time as onboard computing power for UAVs—sometimes called edge computing capacity—is rapidly improving. That is allowing vehicles to be highly autonomous and radio-silent. Space-based cellular services and edge computing capacity one day might be paired to allow UAVs or loitering munitions to operate autonomously until a potential target is spotted and a check-in with a human is needed, Gunter notes. “Once the target is found with a predetermined level of certainty, it bursts a signal to provide for human-on-the-loop confirmation,” he says.
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