Heavenly body – the ADF in Space

Australia took a big step towards its vision for a networked military in October with the announcement that the ADF will invest $927 million in one of a constellation of six Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS) communications satellites.

The deal, which had been rumoured for several months, was given the final go-ahead by the ADF with the imminent but delayed launch of the first WGS for the US on October 10. The US has funded five WGSs under a joint Army-Air Force program, while the sixth was to have been a spare. With the ADF’s entry into the program under Phase 4 of Project JP 2008, it will not only add its own sovereign satellite to its order of battle, but will also gain access to the other five satellites, giving it a true independent global communications capability. Four of the six WGS satellites will be placed in geosynchronous 36,000km orbits, with one over Australia and the other three covering areas predominantly in Australia’s arc of ‘interest’: Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean.