THE HON. GREG COMBET AM MP
Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
084/2009
DSTO HELPS DELIVER ENHANCED SATELLITE CAPABILTY
The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) has helped deliver
enhanced capability and extra capacity for Australia’s satellite defence
communications system, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and
Science, Greg Combet said today.
Mr Combet was briefed on the new military satellite communications capability
(MILSATCOM) during a visit to DSTO’s Edinburgh laboratories in South Australia.
“DTSO plays an essential role within our capability acquisition process. This
includes providing expert advice on the scientific and technical risks and aspects
of projects,” said Mr Combet.
“For this project, the United States was seeking to jointly acquire with the ADF an
additional satellite in the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) constellation. The
scientific support provided by DSTO in acquiring this capability helped inform the
ADF’s participation in this project.
The DSTO study, conducted as part of the acquisition process, was pivotal in
adding scientific rigour to ADF negotiations for the acquisition of this new
capability.
The DSTO Study helped us achieve an ability to scale up our bandwidth
requirements in coming years, an extra two years of capability life and extra
satellite capacity. All of these improvements have also meant that there is potential
for Defence to make significant savings.
The new satellite capability will have benefits for the ADF for the next twenty to
thirty years with access to the WGS network.
DSTO’s involvement in the acquisition of this satellite capability demonstrates the
invaluable work they do in ensuring that the ADF receives the very best capability,
at the best price and lowest risk,” Mr Combet said.
Mr Combet also received briefings on a range of other DSTO research programs
supporting the ADF, including future submarine technologies.
Media Contact:
Rod Hilton (Greg Combet):
(02) 6277 7620 or 0458 276 619
Stephen Butler (DSTO):
(08) 8259 6923 or 0418 800 323
Defence Public Affairs:
(02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664
NEWS 
