In high-threat theatres, communications availability can be the determiner of mission success. Today’s military operations demand comms systems that adapt, endure and deliver under pressure. SKYNET 6 may have set the direction, but the real test lies in implementation: hybrid SatCom, smart terminals and resilient, secure, adaptable networks that can withstand congested, complex and highly contested environments.
The first casualty in modern conflict could be your comms
Spoofing, jamming, cyberthreats, and electromagnetic disruption can down signals and networks before the first shot is fired, rendering forces blind, deaf and outmanoeuvred.
Yet the call to action in the UK MOD’s Strategic Defence Review is loud and clear: the Integrated Force, embarking on a Digital Mission, must increase its lethality tenfold across a battlespace in constant flux. Proposed capabilities like the Digital Targeting Web – underpinned by a resilient comms network – and the establishment of a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command, are signals of strategic intent, just as they are unignorable indicators of the centrality of this domain to current and future warfare.
SKYNET 6: SatCom as a strategic asset
With the SKYNET 6A satellite scheduled for launch in 2026, MOD’s next generation of SKYNET is set for lift-off, guided by a North Star that treats SatCom not as infrastructure but as a strategic weapon in its own right.
SKYNET 6 vision statement: “Providing world-leading satellite communications on demand to enable military strategic effects against current and evolving threats.”
The programme is a complete regeneration of the UK’s secure strategic beyond-line-of-sight comms; prioritising sovereignty, interoperability and modularity across orbits and mission types, regenerating the space segment, ground infrastructure, and user terminals.
It is, perhaps, one of MOD’s most ambitious programmes to date. Contracts like the Next Generation Land Terminal and the Maritime Military SatCom Terminal offer both a challenge and an opportunity for industry suppliers to improve the capability of the military’s terminals such that they can advance in step with SKYNET 6’s far reaching ambitions.
Yet amidst these objectives and requirements lies one deceptively simple truth: the frontline operator needs communications that just work – first time, every time.
Hybridisation: intelligent, dynamic, adaptable SatCom for the modern battlefield
On the frontline, the right message needs to get to the right person at the right time, with the convenience and functionality that smartphone users take for granted – no matter the degraded, contested, denied environment, and no matter the bearer.
Thanks to the increasing hybridisation of networks, this is not an impossible reality. By leveraging a range of orbits (LEO, MEO, HEO, and GEO), frequency bands, and non-satellite communication channels (like terrestrial or tactical radio networks), hybridisation aims to create a user experience akin to commercial mobile connectivity. Smartphone users, for example, rarely have to rummage in their settings to manually switch between 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi, or think about what network to use. Instead, it simply connects. That’s the ambition for defence.
Orchestration is key to delivering a “mobile-like” SatCom experience, whether managed within the terminal or elsewhere in your communications stack. It’s a process that involves coordinating different satellites, frequency bands and terrestrial networks to intelligently and dynamically select the best communication path based on signal strength, latency, bandwidth and security levels. Secure data flow along this path is non-negotiable. Every piece of information, no matter its source or destination, must be trusted. This means embedding robust encryption, authentication and integrity measures so data can be safely received without delay, processed without hesitation and exploited with confidence.
As one might expect, civilian telecom standards can’t simply be lifted into the military domain as part of a hybrid SatCom enterprise due to different security needs and prevailing threats. Yet there are opportunities to utilise these – such as 3GPPP from commercial telecoms, and Open Antenna to Modem Interface Protocol and Digital IF Interoperability from SatCom – to help increase interoperability.
The multi-tool approach to mission-critical comms
With hybrid SatCom, capability isn’t enough – it has to deliver an effect. Whether enabling machine to machine speed communications for collaborative uncrewed systems or accelerating setup and situational awareness with minimal user input, the real test lies in how the methods of exchanging information perform under pressure. That means not just roaming across networks or resisting interference, but empowering operators with adaptive, secure, mission-ready communications they can trust at the tactical edge.
Thales’ SurfSAT–L: next generation SatCom for the German Navy
Deployed aboard the German Navy’s F126 frigates, Thales’ SurfSAT-L system will provide a very high-power tri-band (Ka mil, Ka civil, X) SatCom solution that enables simultaneous transmission on these three frequency bands. The system can connect to MEO and GEO satellites, both military and commercial, for optimal connectivity and extended coverage even in the most demanding operational conditions.
Perhaps the most important lesson of all is that no one solution can do it all. No single terminal, radio or satellite can meet the demands of every mission. What’s needed is a resilient, integrated SatCom enterprise made up of best-in-class tools, terminals, techniques and methodologies; secure by design, redundancy built in at every layer, with zero single points of failure. The solution, then, is as mighty as it is multifaceted: far greater than the sum of its parts, designed specifically to connect, protect and propel whole teams, from the core to the edge.
A call to action from MOD, a call to arms for industry
As reaction to the SDR settles, John Healey’s recent statement pierces the noise:
“We will give our Armed Forces the ability to act at speeds never seen before – connecting ships, aircraft, tanks and operators so they can share vital information instantly and strike further and faster”.
With these ends writ large, the ways and means snap suddenly into sharp relief: smarter, interoperable systems over siloed kit; solutions developed alongside the customer, rather than designed to meet static, predefined requirements; and a hybrid SatCom enterprise built on the skill, intuition, and ingenuity of industry’s many moving, many expert, parts.
The time couldn’t be more ripe for engineers, suppliers and integrators to seize the opportunity and become, like the systems we build, greater than the sum of these parts. For comms to go the distance, and for UK MoD to get ahead, industry must get to work – harder, faster and more integrated, not only with each other, but within and between Front Line Commands.
