DoD accelerates hybrid satcom prototyping
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, with the US Air Force's ninth Wideband Global Satcom satellite. (ULA)
The US Department of Defense (DoD) is accelerating efforts to develop hybrid satellite communications (satcom) capabilities, blending commercial and military satellite services into a single, integrated satcom architecture.
Run out of US Space Force (USSF), in conjunction with the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the combatant commands, the Hybrid Space Architecture (HSA) programme has âthe potential to increase network resilience by employing multi-path routing of communications to optimize data transport and mitigate adverse effectsâ to military satcom networks, according to a DIU statement in May.
In May programme leaders at DIU and the various combatant commands issued a new round of prototype development deals for HSA.
Lockheed Martin Space, Viasat, OneWeb Technologies, and Eutelsat America Corp were among the 13 companies selected for the latest round of HSA prototype development announced in May. Those companies join Amazon Web Services, Anduril, Google, Palantir, and Microsoft and others who were awarded prototype contracts during the initial round of the HSA development effort in 2022, DIU officials said in the May statement.
Officials from DIU or USSF's Space Systems Command (SSC) did not provide details of the total cost of the 13 HSA prototype contracts in the May statement.
However, they noted the deals were inked as part of an âaccelerated integration pathwayâ designed to âachieve essential automation and scalability far more swiftly than traditional acquisition processesâ, said officials from SSC's Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking (TacSRT) team.
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