SES WORLD SKIES Hosts Live Demonstration of the Defense Intelligence VSAT Network in Phoenix

SES WORLD SKIES, a new division of SES, which has been formed through the combination of the former SES NEW SKIES and SES AMERICOM, has announced that the company has hosted a live demonstration of the Defense Intelligence VSAT Network (DIVN) in Phoenix, Arizona, along with the DoD Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Conference 2010.
 
Deploying the bandwidth on board SES’s AMC-1 satellite and links through its Sunset Beach teleport in Hawaii, the company showcased the capability of the DIVN to offer live distribution of conference plenary sessions to locations worldwide. The people attending the conference being held at Phoenix also got to watch live video feeds of Defense leadership in Washington, DC and Afghanistan through the network.
 
The DIVN program aims at seamlessly integrating communications engineering with enhanced broadband satellite support service to offer advanced communication services to the Defense and Intelligence Community that is located at over 100 places worldwide, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Korea.
 
In the year 2009, the director of the DIA had selected the DIVN team for receiving his annual agency team award. DoDIIS is a conference hosted by the DIA, which offers a strong venue to demonstrate the capabilities of the global satellite communications network. The event is attended by around 2,000 participants.
 
In the words of Philip Kwong, chief defense intelligence VSAT Network, the success of the demonstration as well as the Director’s award recently presented to the DIVN team are indicative of both the importance and the quality of the service that VSAT Network provides to DIA and the nation.
 
According to Tip Osterthaler, president and CEO of SES WORLD SKIES, U.S. Government Solutions, DIVN has been a landmark program for SES WORLD SKIES, starting with a small contract to provide commercial bandwidth in support of a regional DIA network and evolving over several years into a significant program that provides mission critical capabilities to a large number of users across a wide geographic area. Osterthaler noted that the demonstration provided a great illustration of how the U.S. Government and industry can come together to provide an enhanced, global communications capability.