On Monday, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) announced that it has selected 12 companies to participate in its initiative to establish a secure network of military and commercial communication satellites. The program will commence demonstrations later this summer.
The initiative, known as the Hybrid Space Architecture program (HSA), involves collaboration among various Defense Department organizations, including DIU, Space Systems Command, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. The goal is to showcase the advantages of integrating commercial satellites and communication systems into the military infrastructure to enhance bandwidth, security, and operational flexibility.
According to DIU, the HSA network aims to increase network resilience by utilizing multi-path routing for communications, which optimizes data transport and mitigates adverse impacts caused by weather or other obstacles. The HSA plan seeks to incorporate commercial persistent sensing, data fusion, high-performance edge computing, and resilient data transport capabilities to significantly improve real-time information access.
This effort aligns closely with the Defense Department’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) concept, which envisions a seamless connection among military forces and their information-sharing systems across various domains including air, space, sea, land, and cyber.
To realize this vision, the Department of Defense requires a secure and agile communication backbone capable of connecting satellites in various orbits and leveraging cloud computing infrastructure for data processing, distribution, and sensor data fusion.
In 2022, DIU selected eight initial firms to start developing prototypes for the program. Recently, 12 new vendor teams were added, including Capella Space, EdgeCortix, Eutelsat America Corp., OneWeb Technologies, Fairwinds Technologies, AST Space Mobile, Illumina Computing Group, Lockheed Martin, MapLarge, SES Space and Defense, Skycorp, SkyFi, Ursa Space, and Viasat.
Demonstrations for the Hybrid Space Architecture are expected to begin this summer and will continue over the next year, with the aim of piloting an operational network by 2026. As part of this initiative, the program team plans to launch a live network to support demonstrations and exercises, further integrating warfighting concepts and tactics.
DIU emphasized that successful demonstrations will bring the Department closer to achieving an operational, resilient, and hybrid space architecture.
