WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – Space communications experts at Northrop Grumman Corp. are pursuing a project to help the U.S. Air Force leverage commercial space Internet satellites to develop new lightweight communications terminals for military aircraft.
Officials at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced in mid-September a $54.7 million follow-on contract for the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, for testing defense using the commercial space Internet Project (DEUCSI).
With this contract, Northrop Grumman engineers seek to develop multi-band satellite communications (SATCOM) antennas capable of use on military aircraft. This could allow a wide range of military aircraft to connect to commercially available SATCOM-based Internet service providers such as Starlink, Hughesnet and Viasat.
Northrop Grumman and other DEUCSI contractors will establish the capability to communicate with military platforms across several commercial space internet constellations.
The DEUCSI project aims to develop small, lightweight satellite communications (SATCOM) systems using commercial space Internet constellations that integrate easily onto aircraft.
Related: RTX Raytheon looks at how commercial satellites can be used to deliver military space internet information
These airborne SATCOM systems will provide resilient, high-speed, globally available and reliable communications using commercial internet satellites operating in low, medium and geostationary Earth orbits.
Other DEUCSI contractors are Raytheon RTX Segment in McKinney, Texas; Intelsat General Communications LLC in McLean, Virginia; L3Harris Technologies – C5 Integrated Systems in Camden, NJ,; the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in San Diego; the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics segment in Fort Worth, Texas; and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado.
DEUCSI seeks to find new ways of distributing information between land, sea and air forces to support high-speed decision making by moving and sharing data seamlessly between fixed and mobile operational locations using constantly available, high bandwidth , beyond the line. visual communications.
The DEUCSI space capability will be called path-agnostic communication because its users will be able to reliably communicate with any location in the world without explicitly specifying which nodes of a communication network to use.
Related: Three defense companies advance toward a path-independent space internet that leverages commercial satellites
The vision of path-independent communications is becoming possible thanks to the burgeoning commercial space industry, Air Force officials say. Several commercial companies intend to create space-based Internet constellations consisting of hundreds or thousands of commercial satellites, each to create global Internet services.
This approach differs radically from traditional military satellite communications programs in which the government typically specifies and funds every aspect of the program, Air Force researchers point out.
Instead, leveraging the commercial space internet will focus government efforts on the few areas that are unique to Air Force applications.
The project involves three phases: establishing connectivity between different Air Force sites using satellites and commercial demonstration terminals; expand connectivity to many Air Force assets by proliferating user terminals in multiple locations and vehicle types; and special experiments to meet military-specific requirements not otherwise met by commercial space Internet vendors.
Under this order Northrop Grumman will perform work in Linthicum, Maryland, and is expected to be finished by March 2027. For more information, contact Northrop Grumman Mission Systems online at https://www.northropgrumman.com/who-we -are/business -sectors/mission-systems.
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