"We have reached the limits of what we can do with the satellite communications architecture that we have today," said Christine M. Anderson who heads the military satellite communications program office for the U. S. Air Force.

"We are now fighting a different kind of war and our military communications need to take that into account," Anderson told AW&ST.

The military satcom network is literally the "central nervous system" for global U.S. military operations.

But the current system, designed during the Cold War, is not optimized for the kind of communications the U.S. needs to operate new unmanned reconnaissance drones and allow American troops to communicate with coalition forces, AW&ST reported.

To correct the deficiencies, the Air Force is kicking off a major transformation of the military satellite system that will include the use of laser beams to carry vast amounts of information, the magazine said.

The initiative will also focus on enabling laptop computers and other small ground receivers to communicate with a larger variety of satellites.

AW&ST said the project will affect the course of billions of dollars in U.S. military satellite communications development for years to come. "A leap in capability is required," according to an Air Force Space Command announcement to the aerospace industry seeking ideas for the project.

The Army, Navy and Marine Corps will be involved and NASA, the civilian space agency, will also provide expertise to the project.

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