• • • DEFENCE SKILLS • • •
How satellite technology is shaping the future of defence communications
to provide operationally informed perspectives on defence space technology and its future evolution.
BY DR TUDOR WILLIAMS, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, FILTRONIC
he space domain is increasingly contested, with the interception of transmitted data and deliberate jamming presenting significant operational risks.
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As a result, satellites must communicate not only with ground stations but also directly with one another, both within the same orbital plane and across different orbits. These inter-satellite links support resilient, secure communications and enable platforms to sense, share and respond to information about potential adversaries. Protecting defence communications is critical to modern warfare; today’s battlefield exists within a congested and highly contested electromagnetic spectrum, where delivering the right information at the right time can be decisive, often making the difference between mission success and failure, or even life and death. Organisations that develop and supply mission-critical hardware for advanced satellite communications across both the military and civilian space sectors are uniquely positioned
34 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING •MARCH 2026
Space as a warfighting domain Orbital space has never been entirely peaceful. Since the beginning of the Space Age, Earth’s orbits have effectively functioned as a contested arena where a wide range of hostile activities can occur. Satellites have faced threats ranging from electronic warfare and signal interference to laser dazzling and close-range manoeuvres known as Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPOs). Historically, much of this activity has remained obscured from public view, largely due to military classification.
Governments have often avoided openly acknowledging incidents in orbit, as doing so could reveal sensitive space surveillance capabilities or intelligence-gathering methods. However, the growing number of reported RPO incidents, combined with the rise of commercial organisations capable of independently tracking and analysing satellite behaviour, is increasing transparency in the space domain. While adversaries may manoeuvre in orbit, it is becoming progressively harder for them to conceal such actions. When these activities are considered alongside electronic jamming and cyber
interference affecting terrestrial military communications, it becomes clear that space now functions as a fully operational warfighting domain. This shift reflects both the growing disruption of space-based support to terrestrial military operations and the increasing targeting of orbital assets within a broader framework of hybrid warfare in space. Even without escalation to kinetic anti-satellite attacks, capable of generating vast fields of debris, or the detonation of a nuclear device in orbit producing an electromagnetic pulse that could disable satellites belonging to both allies and adversaries, significant harm can still occur. A range of hostile actions can cause both reversible degradation and permanent damage to space systems, and few capabilities are more sensitive to such disruption than defence communications.
Satellites as defence critical infrastructure
Satellites are no longer mere support assets but core elements of combat command readiness and deterrence. Militaries around the world plan operations, share intelligence, coordinate forces and enable remote sensors all via space-based infrastructure that must be resilient, secure and enable orbital space control. As reliance on
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