Inmarsat announced on Thursday that the company has unveiled Inmarsat ELERA to serve as a catalyst for the next wave of world-changing technologies and is ideally suited for the Internet of Things (IoT). 

In addition, the global narrowband network will also serve global mobility customers with their needs in the aviation, maritime, governments and other select enterprises.

“ELERA is perfectly suited to the needs of the connected IoT world,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO of Inmarsat. “Global reach, extraordinary resilience, faster speeds, smaller and lower cost terminals are all part of ensuring that we remain ahead of others in meeting the needs of our customers.” 

The unique capabilities of ELERA, combined with Inmarsat’s superior spectrum and the ideally suited orbital position of its satellite networks, will make it the essential catalyst for new IoT use cases, across everything from autonomous transport and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to industrial and agricultural IoT applications. 

This announcement comes following the news that the company had unveiled its plans for Inmarsat ORCHESTRA to bring together the existing geosynchronous (GEO) satellites with low earth orbit satellites (LEO) as well as terrestrial 5G into one integrated high-performance solution.  

“ELERA is a further sign of a company with true momentum and one that is delivering new innovations and strong performance,” continued Suri. “We have sharpened our strategy to focus on driving growth, accelerate decision making, launch new innovations, and are creating a more commercially focused, customer-centric culture.”

ABOUT INMARSAT

Inmarsat is the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications. It owns and operates the world’s most diverse global portfolio of mobile telecommunications satellite networks, and holds a multi-layered, global spectrum portfolio, covering L-band, Ka-band and S-band, enabling unparalleled breadth and diversity in the solutions it provides. Inmarsat’s long-established global distribution network includes not only the world’s leading channel partners but also its own strong direct retail capabilities, enabling end to end customer service assurance.

Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, said the Department of Defense (DOD) needs sensors that can detect missile threats worldwide, DOD News reported Wednesday.

"I would like to have overhead sensors that see everything, characterize everything that goes on on this planet, from a missile perspective, all the time, everywhere. That's the one capability I would like to have because you have to be able to see it to do anything about it,” Hyten said Wednesday at a symposium.

He said the Space Development Agency (SDA) and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) are building a space layer architecture. He cited joint fires, integrated air and missile defense, joint command and control, contested logistics and information advantage as “functional battles” priorities.

Hyten told event attendees that industry should speed up efforts to address the challenges posed by Russia and China. He added that the Joint Requirements Oversight Council will hold an industry day at a classified level to discuss the urgent defense capabilities the Pentagon needs from the commercial sector.

GovCon Wire, sister site of ExecutiveGov, will hold its Space Acquisition Forum on Sept. 14, featuring defense officials who will give their perspectives on military acquisition reform and modernization issues. Visit the GovCon Wire Events page to register for the virtual forum.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) plans to adopt a phased approach to deploying a human capital dashboard over the next three to five months, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Jason Barke, acting principal deputy associate director for OPM’s employee services, said agency personnel are performing security and usability testing to ensure that data on the platform is shareable.

“It’s been in the works, from idea to where we are now, probably about 18 months,” he said of the dashboard during a virtual event Wednesday.

“We continue to refine, and we’ve continued to do some usability as we’ve gone out and shared it with different agencies. We’ve gotten good feedback when they say ‘we should add this, we should add this.’ And so we’ve gotten to a pretty good spot right now where we feel a phase one kind of deployment is about where we’re going to be at,” Barke added.

OPM plans to provide agencies limited access to the dashboard and will require two-factor authentication in order for users to access internal government-use data.

Barke said he worked with the agency’s data office to screen requests from agencies about the types of information that should appear in the platform.

The U.S. Air Force's 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron has demonstrated the F-15C Eagle aircraft's ability to fire an air-to-air missile via an infrared-based targeting system, DVIDS Hub reported Tuesday.

The aircraft fired an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile to intercept a QF-16 aerial target on Thursday at Eglin Air Force Base.

Lockheed Martin’s Legion Pod Infrared Search-and-Track system provided passive tracking and worked with the APG-63v3 radar to deliver the target location. Multiple sensors gathered data to support the interception.

“This successful live missile test is significant because an F-15 equipped with an IRST-cued AIM-120 allows us to achieve detection, tracking, targeting, weapons employment and verification of an intercept without being dependent upon radar energy,” said Maj. Brian Davis, chief of air-to-air weapons and tactics at the 85th TES.