By: Dawn Zoldi
As public safety agencies increasingly rely on uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) platforms, their success depends on one thing above all else: an assured, always‑on command‑and‑control (C2) link. That’s the niche Viasat has carved out in the low‑altitude economy, bringing decades of aviation safety heritage and a trusted L‑band satellite network to missions where lives are on the line.
What Makes L‑Band Different And Why It Matters
Viasat’s public safety value proposition lies in its use of the L‑band satellite spectrum, a narrow slice of radio frequencies specifically reserved and protected for safety‑critical aviation and maritime services. Sitting lower on the spectrum than typical consumer satellite broadband, L‑band’s longer wavelengths penetrate heavy rain, clouds and atmospheric disturbances far better than higher‑frequency services, which turns basic physics into operational resilience. Incident commanders need that kind of resilience, especially when weather, terrain or congestion knock other networks offline.
Unlike LTE or 5G, which depend on towers, fiber backhaul and dense urban infrastructure, L‑band links connect directly from the aircraft to space. They provide coverage over oceans, mountains, deserts, dense forests and urban canyons with equal reliability. Unlike entertainment‑grade satellite TV or broadband that can fade during summer thunderstorms, Viasat’s L‑band network was engineered and certified from the outset as “safety spectrum” for crewed aviation and maritime distress communications. It has rigorous availability targets and decades of real‑world performance behind it.
From Ocean Storms to Uncrewed Skies
Long before anyone talked about drone-as-first-responders (DFR), Viasat’s safety business, through its Inmarsat heritage, kept ships and airliners connected in the worst weather on earth. The company leverages L-band, designated and protected for safety-critical aviation and maritime operations, to deliver a highly resilient link that continues performing in heavy rain, storms and remote environments where other networks are intermittent and unreliable.
Jerry Hancock, Viasat’s Director of Aviation Safety Solutions and Cybersecurity, stresses that not all satellite services are created equal. He should know. He has spent more than a decade developing aviation safety and cyber‑hardened connectivity solutions, following a long career supporting FAA‑linked safety and air traffic projects. At Viasat, he works across aircraft manufacturers, regulators and standards bodies to ensure satellite‑based systems integrate cleanly into both vehicles and ground networks, with an end‑to‑end focus on safety and cybersecurity.
Hancock compared entertainment‑grade links to safety‑grade L‑band. When thunderstorms roll through on consumer TV services, “you lose your TV,” he observed, but “you can’t have that for safety services.” That same resilience now underpins UAS and emerging advanced air mobility platforms operating beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). In particular, for public safety agencies now pushing drones and future AAM platforms BVLOS, that heritage gives L‑band an immediate edge as the trusted, always‑on C2 backbone, when seconds and certainty matter most.
Drones As Essential Public Safety Tools
For law enforcement, firefighters, search‑and‑rescue (SAR) teams and disaster response units, drones have become fast, flexible tools that get eyes, sensors and even small payloads on‑scene in minutes. Hancock highlighted how public safety teams use UAS today for car accidents where ambulances can’t reach, medical deliveries between hospitals and high‑risk SAR scenarios in rugged or urban terrain.
“Drones are more adaptable, more flexible because you can throw them up, you can get them out quickly to get to a specific target site in a very short time period,” he said, calling them “another tool in our public safety toolbox” that lets agencies operate far more efficiently. But as missions move out farther and stay airborne longer, line‑of‑sight radio and patchy LTE no longer cut it, especially as BVLOS becomes the norm.
Closing the Coverage Gaps Terrestrial Networks Can’t Reach
Even in dense, connected cities, first responders lose signal. Anyone can stand in the middle of a major downtown and watch connectivity drop out, largely due to concrete canyons and RF clutter. This problem becomes even alone in mountainous regions, dense forest canopies, offshore wind farms or open ocean.
Kristen Mineck, Viasat’s Manager of Aviation Standards and Requirements, has devoted roughly ten years to tracking and shaping global aviation regulations. With previous roles inside the FAA’s air traffic and aviation safety organizations and direct support to the agency’s safety management system (SMS) and SAR oversight, now leads Viasat’s efforts to align emerging UAS and AAM connectivity solutions with international standards. She framed Viasat’s value to public safety as an “always on” backup layer that lets responders focus on the mission, not the link budget. “You don’t want to have to worry about whether or not you are going to have coverage,” she explained. “What we believe we bring to this equation is a backup layer of connectivity that’s always there so that the responders can focus on whatever their mission is.”
Instead of tying flight plans to where cell towers happen to be, L‑band satcom gives UAS operators a skyward line of sight. Hancock likened the shift to aviation’s move from ground‑based navigation beacons to space‑based navigation, which freed aircraft to fly more direct routes, increase efficiency and extend range.
The Heart of the Mission: Assured C2 for BVLOS
For regulators, the core concern in BVLOS revolves around whether the operator can safely manage and monitor the aircraft at all times, not just how beautiful a video might look in a command center. That means a C2 link, reliable detect‑and‑avoid (DAA) data and electronic conspicuity (EC) so other airspace users know where the drone is.
Hancock drew a sharp line between those critical C2 functions and mission payload data like video or infrared imagery. Regulators “don’t care about what your actual mission is other than how it relates to managing the aircraft,” he explained. Viasat built it L‑band network precisely for that always‑on C2 layer: narrowband but highly reliable, with decades of performance data in certified aviation environments.
That track record matters when public safety teams move from waivers and one‑off approvals to normalized BVLOS operations under emerging frameworks such as the FAA’s anticipated Part 108 rule in the United States. “What we bring to the table…is a known proven communication solution that the regulators are already familiar with,” Hancock noted. This helps agencies demonstrate that their safety case rests on aviation‑grade infrastructure, not best‑effort consumer links.
Real‑Time Eyes On: Streaming the Incident Back to Command
Still, the mission payload matters immensely to the people actually running an incident. For public safety, that payload is often live video, thermal imaging or other sensor data streaming from the edge back to a command post or mobile operations center.
Mineck described how Viasat can support both mission‑critical C2 and sensor data, either as a standalone satellite link or as part of a multi‑link architecture where satcom serves as the resilient fallback when terrestrial connections falter. For the user, the experience should be seamless. “The user would just see…a consistent video or RF or infrared…They’ll get that in real time as soon as it is sent from the drone, as opposed to having to wait to download data later and do processing and analysis after the fact,” she said.
That kind of real‑time situational awareness can change how public safety teams fight wildfires, secure major events, monitor borders,or coordinate disaster response across multiple agencies. It also enables more complex, autonomous behaviors on the aircraft itself, as the drone can reliably share data, receive new taskings and stay tightly coupled to a ground control system (GCS) over long distances.
Built In Safety Culture and Regulatory Fluency
Many public safety agencies don’t have internal aviation departments. They simply add unmanned aircraft on top of already demanding primary missions. Mineck noted that agencies often “just expect us to be able to hand them a solution that works and they can just go out and fly.” Oftentimes, BVLOS approvals, safety cases and spectrum considerations add layers of complexity that can overwhelm small teams. Add to that mix the regulatory complexity of cross-border or international operations. It’s hard to keep up, as the global regulatory picture continues to unevenly evolve.
Mineck’s background inside the FAA’s air traffic safety organization, aviation safety organization and global SMS office gives her a nuanced view of how regulators think about risk, SAR operations and system integration. In her current role, she translates that world into practical pathways for UAV and AAM operators, helping them understand that “it really does take an expert to help you navigate all of the different layers” of aviation safety regulations.
Just across North America, for example, the differences are stark. In the United States, the FAA’s BVLOS rulemaking process, including a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and follow‑on comment windows on EC, signals an intent to normalize certain categories of BVLOS operations under Part 108, especially for lower‑risk missions. Canada, Mineck noted, has rules coming into effect to open the door for low‑risk BVLOS missions that broadly mirror the U.S. approach of tackling easier use cases first. Mexico, by contrast, remains more cautious, still focused on visual line of sight operations while it develops its BVLOS framework. For cross‑border public safety missions, from wildfire response to law‑enforcement or humanitarian operations, those mismatches complicate planning and approval, which makes harmonized connectivity and safety practices even more important.
For his part, Hancock approaches the same challenge from the systems side. He spends his time with aircraft manufacturers, regulatory groups and standards organizations to make sure Viasat’s solutions “integrate well within the vehicles themselves with the ground systems,” and that the end‑to‑end architecture “makes sense” for safety and cybersecurity.
Across North America, Viasat’s combination of global L‑band coverage, aviation safety heritage and active participation in international standards bodies positions the company as both an informed solution provider and policy stakeholder.
AAM and eVTOL: Public Safety as a First Real Market
While much of the public narrative around AAM centers on passenger “air taxis,” Mineck expects some of the earliest meaningful AAM missions will be public safety‑driven. She pointed to recent hurricane seasons as an example. When disasters wipe out runways and roads and knock the power down for thousands, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft capable of carrying temporary communications equipment, critical supplies or even evacuees can hop between isolated communities and staging bases.
Hancock extended that logic to backcountry and alpine rescue, where today a single injured person can shut down a mountain for hours while a helicopter conducts a risky hoist. In the future, a suitably equipped eVTOL could land closer, evacuate more safely and restore normal operations faster. All of this is predicated on high‑reliability C2 links in complex terrain and weather. For Viasat, AAM represents not just a growth market, but a natural extension of its aviation safety portfolio into new aircraft types and mission profiles.
From Concept to Connected Capability
In closing, Hancock and Mineck outlined a simple three-part playbook for public safety agencies exploring BVLOS and satellite connectivity:
Define a focused mission
Don’t try to “do everything” on day one. Focus on a mission such as SAR in the backcountry, wildfire overwatch, coastal patrol or disaster assessment. For Hancock, well‑articulated operations not only help regulators. They reassure communities by explaining “exactly what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and how that’s going to benefit them.”
Invest in understanding or accessing aviation safety expertise.
Understanding safety and regulations will best align your concept of operations, risk assessment and technology stack with regulatory expectations. “It can get very complex very quickly,” Mineck cautioned. Patience and clear planning avoid introducing undue risk to people in the air or on the ground. Viasat has spent decades collaborating with regulators and standards bodies on safety services for crewed aviation, building a deep bench of operational and certification insight. That legacy now underpins how the company helps agencies shape UAV concepts of operations and connectivity architectures that track closely with new BVLOS regulations and evolving industry best practices.
Expect a crawl‑walk‑run progression.
Start small, prove value and scale as regulations normalize and funding improves. That’s how the Summit County, Colorado SAR team recently grew its drone cadre from a single champion to eight trained operators after years of persistence.
As more emergencies depend on autonomous aircraft and BVLOS operations, the work of Viasat, and leaders like Hancock and Mineck, underscores how resilient satellite connectivity is becoming mission‑critical infrastructure, not a luxury add‑on. It is the backbone that keeps aircraft on course, data flowing and decision‑makers informed when everything else is failing, turning drones and emerging AAM platforms into trusted tools rather than experimental one‑offs.
For public safety agencies under pressure to do more with less, that kind of assured, safety‑grade connectivity is what will ultimately separate aspirational concepts from repeatable, life‑saving operations at scale.Watch the Dawn of Autonomy, Episode 11, featuring Viasat’s Jerry Hancock and Kristen Mineck.