Satellite communications (SATCOM) are a major part of our business and foundational to Comtech as a company — two conditions are currently true about this market: it is evolving, and, as a function of that evolution, it’s growing — 2024 is an example of such growth for the industry and for Comtech.
Let's first look at how SATCOM is evolving as an industry for the commercial providers and users.
Take the LEO market as an example. On its own, this market segment is worth an estimated $5.4 billion now. Projections anticipate growth to more than $25 billion by 2032, with North America projected to lead this growth.
Additionally, the Canadian government also recently invested several billion dollars to support the advancement of LEO satellite networks.
LEO technology demonstrates the commercial appeal of modern satellite solutions.
LEO satellites are key to establishing the connectivity we need for everyday activities such as monitoring weather forecasts or helping connected devices reliably operate via mobile broadband.
Comtech Troposcatter Antennas.
In addition to LEO, there is a rapidly growing, satellite ground station market. This market segment is projected to grow to $6.6 trillion by 2028 – expanding at a 6.89% CAGR this year.
Solutions that fall in this space —– such as troposcatter and VSAT technologies — are key to bringing legacy and modern infrastructures together, and provide the flexibility organizations, defense or otherwise, need to establish communications in difficult and ever-changing environments.
Comtech is constantly innovating to modernize communications architecture, and make it more dependable and adaptable to meet our customers’ modern-day needs.
In example, the company debuted a the new, digital, common ground modem product line in September. Designed initially to support the Department of Defense (DoD and coalition partners in establishing interoperability with hybrid networks, we believe this product line has multiple applications, and we are only at the beginning of a demand cycle that will be driven by new technologies.
This kind of application is demonstrative of the high potential inherent in the military-to-civilian innovation cycle, as technology traditionally used by the government finds a variety of downstream applications in the commercial sector.
One of the biggest use cases for satellite technology is defense, and Comtech has been proudly working with the U.S. DoD for years.The threat environment today has changed drastically with the introduction of more sophisticated methods of attack on communications, including cyber warfare.
As a result, defense organizations are moving away from large, fixed legacy communications systems to alternatives that are more agile and distributed, so that they have multiple networks to route data traffic through anywhere, at any time.
These flexible and resilient systems are key to keeping communication flow open and uninterrupted under extreme conditions, when it matters most.
As a result, there has been a growing need for digital ground station infrastructure and multi-orbit constellations in both the commercial and the defense industries, inclusive of Low, Medium and Geostationary Earth Orbit (LEO, MEO, GEO) satellites.
Solutions, such as troposcatter technology, can also help bridge the gap between legacy and new systems, moving from network-centric infrastructures to highly distributed, data-centric models.
What does this mean for our business? It means more opportunity in a growing market.
At Comtech, we understand the importance of continued information flow, whether it’s allowing our smartphones to connect from around the world, or sharing tactics across a battlefield.
We're thrilled to see the satellite market continue to reach new heights. We're already well-established and ready to capture more opportunities — just take a look at the Satellite & Space wins we have from the last year alone. And the best is yet to come from Comtech.
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