Space Force eyes improving satellite communications (SATCOM) in contested space with one architecture

Sept. 22, 2020
Commercial providers have expressed cautious optimism with the Space Force’s approach, while arguing they need more funding and more specifics.

WASHINGTON – As the U.S. Space Force builds out its fiscal 2022 budget, the nascent service is developing a new strategy to govern how it builds and leases satellite communications (SATCOM) and services. C4ISRnet reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

22 Sept. 2020 -- The strategy follows an earlier Space Force document that formally lays out the military’s desire to have one SATCOM architecture that can keep war fighters connected even in contested, degraded, and operationally-limited environments.

Today the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) relies on a loose federation of stovepiped, government-built satellites and commercial providers for connectivity, yet the Space Force wants to enable warfighters to roam from one signal to another to maintain their connections.

Commercial providers have expressed cautious optimism with the Space Force’s new one-architecture approach, while arguing that the effort needs more funding and more specifics.

Related: Air Force eyes secure networking for shared situational awareness in SATCOM-denied environments

Related: Air Force eyes layered airborne networking for degraded, outmanned, and outgunned conditions

Related: DARPA asks industry to develop small, secure military satellites to operate in low-Earth orbit (LEO)

John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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