Sovereign SATCOM is becoming a strategic priority for governments and defense organizations worldwide as military communications are reshaped by geopolitical tensions, contested environments, and evolving mission requirements. At the same time, the rapid development of commercial space capabilities, multi-orbit architectures, and AI-enabled networking is creating new opportunities to build communications infrastructures that are more adaptable, resilient and responsive to operational demands.
In this episode of the Modern Integrated Warfare podcast, guest moderator Dave Davis, Senior Technical Director of Global Government at ST Engineering iDirect, is joined by industry leaders from Airbus Defence and Space and Marconi Technologies UK, formerly Ultra I&C to discuss the technologies, collaborations, and operational needs shaping the future of sovereign SATCOM. Together, they explore the growing importance of AI-enabled network management, multi-orbit resilience, user-centric terminal design, and the public-private collaboration necessary to deliver communications capabilities at the speed of modern conflict.
“Countries now want to know where their data is landing. They want to have control of that network, and they want to know what their data is doing.” – Joey Williamson
“One solution isn’t going to solve everything. Your ability to swap between orbits and between constellations is really important-to have that multi-waveform, multi-constellation element to it- all while being able to deliver at pace.” – Henry Nelson