By: Dawn Zoldi
When a UAV crosses the threshold of visual line of sight, the pilot loses direct perception of the aircraft. A reliable, continuous data link that carries command-and-control (C2) instructions must replace it. That link also needs to be able to broadcast position information to air traffic systems and activate contingency procedures if something goes wrong. As uncrewed operations expand in range, altitude and complexity, terrestrial networks alone cannot provide the coverage and resilience that regulators and operators require. Viasat purpose-built its Velaris platform to close that gap.
The Stakes Behind the Signal
Viasat has spent decades building the backbone of safety-critical aviation communications. The company’s satellite networks support crewed aviation across some of the world’s most demanding operational environments. That heritage now anchors its approach to the uncrewed sector. (Watch Viasat’s Jerry Hancock and Kristin Mineck on Episode 111 of the Dawn of Autonomy podcast).
Its Velaris platform represents the translation of that institutional knowledge into a dedicated service for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles. For advanced drone operations, reliable connectivity is a prerequisite. The industry has finally moved past debating whether satellite communications belong in the equation at all.
Terrestrial Networks Alone Are Not Enough
For UAVs operating at shorter ranges and lower risk levels, LTE and 5G cellular networks can provide a workable communications layer. Search and rescue (SAR) teams deploying rotary-wing drones over urban terrain, utilities inspectors covering transmission lines within cellular range, or commercial operators flying packaged delivery routes in dense infrastructure areas may even find terrestrial coverage sufficient for initial beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) approvals. Even so, that capability does not travel with the mission.
Coverage gaps at low altitude are a well known operational problem. Cellular networks are built for users at ground level, not aircraft at altitude, where the antenna geometry changes and interference from multiple towers compounds. Congestion affects throughput during high-demand events, including exactly the mass casualty or disaster scenarios where enterprise, government and public safety drone operators need reliability most. Finally, when terrestrial infrastructure itself is damaged, as often occurs in the kind of emergency conditions that drive the highest-value drone deployments, the ground-based link disappears exactly when it is needed most.
Joel Klooster, SVP of Aircraft Operations and Safety at Viasat, explained, “For BVLOS uncrewed operations, safety depends on having a command-and-control link that can be trusted wherever the aircraft is operating. Satellite communications play a critical role in providing that assurance, particularly beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.”
Regulatory frameworks recognize this calculus. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) uses Specific Assurance and Integrity Levels (SAILs) to characterize the communications requirements for an operation based on its risk profile. As operations increase in range, complexity and integration with other airspace users, the SAIL level rises. So too does the performance standards for the C2 link.
Both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) approach the same problem through different frameworks. However, the underlying logic converges on the same principle. The more consequential the operation, the more resilient the communications architecture must be. Viasat designed Velaris to satisfy that requirement across all of them.
What Velaris Actually Does
Velaris provides BVLOS connectivity through Viasat’s L-band satellite network, a frequency band that offers inherent advantages for safety-critical communications. It provides strong signal penetration, resistance to atmospheric degradation and global coverage that does not depend on the density of ground infrastructure beneath the flight path. L-band falls in the same spectrum family that underpins SwiftBroadband-Safety, Viasat’s safety-certified IP connectivity service for crewed aviation, a lineage that reflects deliberate design choices. (See prior AG coverage of Viasat’s L-Band).
The Velaris platform supports multilink architectures. This means it integrates with cellular and other data links rather than replaces them. An operator or flight management system can switch between available links based on signal quality, priority and contingency protocols. It enables C2 continuity without manual intervention. If a terrestrial link degrades or drops entirely, the satellite connection holds and keeps the aircraft under control. It sustains position reports to the UAS traffic management (UTM) system and preserves the lost-link procedures that regulators increasingly examine during operational authorization reviews.
TTP plc, an independent technology and product development consultancy, developed the Gotonomi terminal, specifically for the Velaris network. It enables satcom capabilities in a low-SWaP form factor that fits the payload constraints of commercial and defense drone platforms. The terminal allows for avionics integration that once required custom engineering programs. Now customers can leverage this production-ready system for operational deployment.
Building Trust From the U.K. to the World
Velaris is already operational, and proven. As one example, the April 2026 ESA RPAS flight trials under the Iris programme in the United Kingdom at Cranfield University’s National Flying Laboratory Centre generated the rigorous, real-world performance data that regulators and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) need before they can confidently authorize complex BVLOS operations at scale. Viasat, Thales, TTP plc, Dimetor, and the European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the trials using a Bulldog light aircraft as a surrogate for remotely piloted platforms to test how satellite communications, terrestrial cellular networks and C-band radio links can perform together within a safety-oriented, multilink architecture in a live operational environment.
The results reinforced what Viasat had already anticipated. Jim Baddoo, Senior Expert at Thales, confirmed that the trials delivered secure, high-availability connectivity across all three link types simultaneously. Thomas Neubauer, CEO of Dimetor, extended that point to the systems layer. Automated drone operations are only as reliable as the connectivity data underpinning them. Knowing where terrestrial and non-terrestrial links are available, and at what quality,makes sound airspace decision-making possible. Going forward, the consortium expects this same combination to define the operations architecture for BVLOS deployments, as the sector scales.
Regulators, air navigation service providers, and airspace integrators rely on demonstrated performance data to make authorization decisions, define standards, and ultimately open the airspace that the drone industry needs to grow. The Cranfield trials built evidence. In aviation, evidence is the currency of trust.
The Sectors That Need This Now
The value proposition for Velaris, across multiple markets, is as real as the connectivity it provides. Consider the:
public safety operator coordinating a wildfire perimeter assessment over terrain where cellular towers have burned.
enterprise inspection team that must fly gas pipeline corridors through remote Wyoming, hundreds of miles from the nearest 5G node.
commercial cargo operator who needs to build the regulatory case for an autonomous delivery route that crosses county lines and controlled airspace.
Each of these operators faces the same issue. Their missions require BVLOS. BVLOS requires a reliable C2 link. Terrestrial infrastructure cannot provide it at scale or in every location where operations will occur. Satellite connectivity closes that gap. Viasat designed to close it in a way that satisfies regulators, integrates with UTM and air traffic management (ATM) systems and scales as operational tempo increases.
Anthony Spouncer, Senior Director of Advanced Air Mobility at Viasat, has described the company’s role as one of enabling global scalability in the commercial UAV market through collaboration with partners who extend Velaris into new operational contexts. The March 2026 partnership with Galaxy 1 Communications illustrates this. Galaxy 1, a Florida-based company with more than two decades of experience in managed satellite connectivity and IoT enablement, joined Viasat not as a traditional distributor but as a Distribution Partner-as-a-Service (DPaaS) provider.
That distinction matters operationally. Rather than simply reselling Velaris, Galaxy 1 layers a managed framework on top of it that abstracts the complexity of provisioning, billing, compliance oversight and systems integration into a unified delivery model. Its IBIS and Remote Terminal Manager platforms add real-time terminal visibility, secure lifecycle management and compliance-ready reporting. Regulators increasingly scrutinize these capabilities as prerequisites for BVLOS authorization in controlled airspace. For UAV and AAM operators, this new combined offering shortens the path from proof-of-concept to commercially scaled, regulated deployment without requiring each operator to independently solve the backend infrastructure problem.
Building Future Airspace Today
Viasat’s investment in Velaris, in the Iris RPAS programme and in a growing ecosystem of terminal manufacturers, UTM integrators and distribution partners reflects its strategic understanding that the operators who will scale BVLOS in the next five years will not wait for perfect conditions. They will build operational architectures today that use the most reliable, regulatorily coherent and geographically invariant connectivity available.
For UAV operations across public safety, enterprise, commercial and more emerging sectors, Viasat’s recent activities, as practical matter, have proven that the mission boundary that once ended at visual line of sight has moved outward. The communications infrastructure needed to push that boundary further, safely and legally, exists. The work being done by Viasat and its partners has moved beyond admiring tomorrow’s possibilities. Velaris makes the operations that matter today fully reliable, fully compliant and ready to scale, right now.