The US Space Force has selected five companies to demonstrate a satellite communications network designed to make space connectivity more resilient.
The US Space Force has selected five companies to demonstrate a next-generation satellite communications network designed to make military space connectivity more resilient and interoperable.
Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, and York Space Systems each received a pair of awards worth up to $12 million, combining contracts and agreements under the Space-Based Sensing and Targeting (SBST) portfolio.
Instead of building a single satellite system, the effort aims to validate the Space Data Network (SDN), an open-architecture communications framework that allows commercial and government satellites to securely exchange data across different orbital networks.
Each company will first demonstrate ground-to-space and space-to-space data transport through prototype interconnectivity projects, with contracts valued at $10 million.
A second phase provides $2-million agreements to develop Space Exchange Point satellites, orbital routers that connect disparate satellite constellations to the SDN backbone.
The Space Force said that establishing common physical, electrical, and data interface standards will reduce reliance on single vendors and allow future satellite communications payloads to integrate without costly redesigns.
"We cannot afford to treat every new satellite like a custom science project built from scratch," SBST SDN Backbone program material leader Alexa Eggert said.
The demonstrations are expected to run for six to nine months.
US Boosts Satellite Communications
The SDN awards continue a broader US effort to modernize military satellite communications.
In August, Voyager Technologies secured a contract to develop technology that enables satellites to exchange data directly in orbit, supporting a more resilient space-based communications architecture through an in-orbit demonstration of its flight-ready waveform.
In June, Northrop Grumman won a $398-million contract to develop an Enhanced Protected Tactical Satellite Communications prototype with anti-jam capabilities under the Protected Tactical SATCOM program.
The effort follows SpaceX's $2.29-billion award in May to develop the SDN Backbone, a low Earth orbit satellite constellation designed to provide secure, low-latency communications linking military sensors, weapons, and command systems.
