The U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has taken a significant step toward its goal of building a secure and resilient network of military and commercial communications satellites. Twelve different companies have been selected to contribute to the ambitious project, the agency announced Monday. The selected companies are scheduled to begin various demonstrations later this summer.
The program, called “Hybrid Space Architecture,” or HSA for short, brings together key Department of Defense organizations such as DIU, Space Systems Command (SSC) and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The primary goal of HSA is to demonstrate the potential of integrating commercial satellites and communications systems into military architecture to provide greater bandwidth, superior security, and increased flexibility.
“HSA network has the potential to increase network resilience by routing communications over multiple paths to optimize data transfer and minimize adverse effects caused by weather or other environmental obstacles,” the DIU said in a statement. “HSA aims to integrate commercial persistent sensing, data fusion, high-performance edge computing, and resilient data transfer capabilities to significantly increase real-time access to information.”
This strategic effort is closely aligned with the Department of Defense’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept. JADC2 is a vision to connect military forces and information-sharing systems regardless of the air, space, sea, land or cyber domains in which they operate. To achieve this goal, the Department of Defense needs a more secure and agile communications backbone that can integrate satellites in different orbits, leverage cloud computing infrastructure to efficiently process and distribute data, and meaningfully combine data from multiple sensors.
DIU selected eight lead companies to begin prototype development in the first phase of the program in 2022. With the announcement Monday, the project has added 12 new supplier teams, including: Capella Space; EdgeCortix; Eutelsat America Corp. and OneWeb Technologies; Fairwinds Technologies and AST Space Mobile; Illumina Computing Group; Lockheed Martin; MapLarge; SES Space and Defense; Skycorp; SkyFi; Ursa Space; and Viasat.
According to DIU’s plans, Hybrid Space Architecture demonstrations will begin this summer and continue throughout next year, with the ultimate goal of the program being to pilot an operational network in 2026. As part of this comprehensive effort, the program team aims to launch a live network that will support various demonstrations and exercises and help integrate warfighting concepts and tactics into this new architecture.
“Success in these demonstrations will bring the Department one step closer to achieving an operational, resilient, and hybrid space architecture,” DIU said in a statement. This project is considered critical to the future communications and information-sharing capabilities of the U.S. military.
