A group ot Pentagon officials was given three months to come up with a plan to boost the supply of satellite bandwidth that is needed to support the military's growing fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles. The order came from Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall. The challenge he laid out is twofold: Find ways for the Pentagon to capitalize on lower-cost commercial satellite communications technology. And figure out whether this technology can satisfy unique military demands such as protecting UAV data links from hackers. "Kendall has given us a 90-day window to come up with a notional framework for how the Defense Department is going to provision satcom into the future," said Charles Beames, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for space and intelligence.
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