U.S. Air Force Selects Hughes to Develop Enterprise Management and Control Prototype for SATCOM Resilience

Hughes to employ Artificial Intelligence technology to enable interoperability among military and commercial satellite networks

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Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Sep 16, 2019, 08:00 ET

GERMANTOWN, Md., Sept. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, today announced it has been awarded a $2.2M contract funded by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), to produce an Enterprise Management and Control (EM&C) prototype for satellite communications (SATCOM). The prototype will include the Hughes Flexible Modem Interface (FMI) which will enhance interoperability across military and commercial SATCOM networks to form a unified hybrid network architecture. Under the agreement, Hughes will demonstrate a solution that enables automated mission planning for SATCOM terminals to roam between networks through automated control processes. In this way, when an active transmission becomes degraded or disrupted, the terminals can "self-heal" to maintain connectivity using alternate networks, enabling higher resiliency.

Hybrid, Resilient Networks using software-defined technology

"This is the second follow-on contract that Hughes has been awarded by the USAF, a testament to our commitment and ability to support the U.S. Air Force Space Enterprise Vision of a more resilient national security space infrastructure using advanced software technologies," said Dr. Rajeev Gopal, vice president of advanced defense systems for Hughes. "Using our AI-based terminal management and control technologies, we will show fixed and mobile terminals intelligently roaming among available commercial and military satellite systems for exponential improvements in network resiliency, capacity and cost models."

Leveraging the company's Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based FMI and Mission Management System (MMS) prototypes, Hughes intends to develop and demonstrate the capability for terminals designed for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to intelligently roam among diverse satellite networks and services. The demonstration will also utilize the Hughes HM System which enables UAVs, helicopters and other aircraft to transmit real-time feeds of HD video and other Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) data over satellite.

"This contract is another step forward as DoD continues making rapid progress in building high resilience and interoperability across their communications networks," said Rick Lober, vice president and general manager for Hughes Defense and Intelligence Systems Division. "Warfighters can no longer rely on single-threaded systems in contested environments, which is why it is critical the Space Enterprise Vision becomes reality as quickly as possible."

About Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global leader in broadband satellite technology and services for home and office. Its flagship high-speed satellite Internet service is HughesNet®, the world's largest satellite network with over 1.4 million residential and business customers across North and South America. For large enterprises and governments, the company's HughesON™ managed network services provide complete connectivity solutions employing an optimized mix of satellite and terrestrial technologies. The JUPITER™ System is the world's most widely deployed High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) platform, operating on more than 40 satellites by leading service providers, delivering a wide range of broadband enterprise, mobility and cellular backhaul applications. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 7 million terminals of all types to customers in over 100 countries, representing approximately 50 percent market share, and its technology is powering broadband services to aircraft around the world.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes operates sales and support offices worldwide, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), a premier global provider of satellite operations. For additional information about Hughes, please visit www.hughes.com and follow @HughesConnects on Twitter.

About EchoStar
EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a premier global provider of satellite communication solutions. Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., and conducting business around the globe, EchoStar is a pioneer in secure communications technologies through its Hughes Network Systems and EchoStar Satellite Services business segments. For more information, visit www.echostar.com. Follow @EchoStar on Twitter.

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC