Globalstar for the military

Globalstar, a new satellite-based, digital mobile communications service, will commence initial commercial operations in 1998. In addition to providing a worldwide commercial service, Globalstar will also enable military personnel, using handheld, shipboard, or vehicular mobile terminals, even in the most remote areas of the world, to connect with each other and back to rear echelons. Providing low-cast and reliable mobile satellite services (MSS) with diversity operations, Globalstar will be interoperable with existing local, long-distance, public, private, cellular, and DoD specialized networks. Globalstar is currently proposing these military-specific MSS services-which include transportable gateways, netted broadcast nets, encrypted traffic circuits, DoD control, and increased data rates-concurrently with full commercial operations. This paper describes the basic Globalstar system, and how it will be modified and adapted for military use.