Whoever wins on November 4 faces a new challenge. It's usually incoming administrations that take the chainsaw to new programs, but this time the outgoing team has kicked a lot of decisions into the next administration's lap. Space Radar was first, and then the tanker decision was tabled. Last week, it was the turn of ARH-70 to be dragged behind the barn for an appointment with Dr. Winchester. Now, it looks as if TSAT is gone.

Nobody gets excited about communications satellites, but TSAT is important. First of all, the military is increasingly dependent on satellites - but much of its traffic travels on commercial networks, which are not designed to withstand mischief. Secure and proprietary traffic is different.

Second, TSAT was "transformational" - and difficult - because it was supposed to bring secure, high-speed connectivity to mobile users using small terminals. The Rolling Stones wrote the law of satcoms:  You can't always get what you want. You can get bandwidth with a big antenna (Global Hawk, or the EHF monsters that the USAF wants to implant in the B-2's hump). You can get mobility and a small antenna, but that requires a lot of high-tech on the satellite. Or you can get mobility and moderate data rates out of a low-flying system like Iridium.

TSAT was supposed to bring high bandwidth down to at least a small vehicle-mounted system, with anti-jam and other secure features, while using laser crosslinks to connect the satellites together, and link the front line to CONUS. As such, it was the assured, non-line-of-sight network that was supposed to tie the Future Combat System together. In fact, the whole idea of a battlefield-wide network depends on that capability, which has just gone back to the drawing board.

Fortunately, a replacement comms system for FCS has been developed under a classified program, and Ares can present an exclusive image of a developmental test:

Airborne assets may indeed be the way to go. Perhaps the cancellation of TSAT will spur interest in airborne and near-space platforms:  it takes much less power to talk to something at 65,000 feet than to communicate over 22,300 miles.