Defense Comms: The House Giveth

The House Appropriations Committee approved a budget for the high-powered Wideband Global Satcom System in fiscal 2010 of $626.7 million in its version of next year's appropriations bill, an increase of $425 million from the president's requested budget.

There are two wideband global satcom satellites in orbit today, each capable of providing more throughput than all the older military satellites now in orbit. Defense plans to launch six of these birds, which can transmit data at a rate of 6.2 gigabits per second compared with a wired home Internet connection, which pokes along at 7 mbps.

The House also approved the requested development budget of $880.9 million for the Joint Tactical Radio System, which based on my experience last week at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico has finally started to deliver radios that can operate on the battlefield at a data rate of 1.8 mpbs.

It's only taken the JTRS program a decade to field a broadband radio, but I guess radios, like wine, take time to mature.

Of course, these funding lines are not final until the Senate passes its bill and the two bills then go through a conference to arrive at the final budget, which maybe this year may happen before the end of the fiscal year, something that will be close to a miracle.