Australia looks towards space with force restructure, investment and training
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
Collins Aerospace awarded contract for BLoS satellite communications pod
Commercial satellite systems such as Starlink will seamlessly link with fighter jets under a pod being developed by Collins Aerospace. (Image: SpaceX)
Collins Aerospace has been awarded a $36 million contract to develop and demonstrate a platform-agnostic BLoS satellite communications pod for the USAF Research Laboratory (USAFRL).
The pod is designed to provide warfighters with resilient, high bandwidth, low latency communications and data directly to the cockpit. It will bring together both commercial and military satellites and provide increased resiliency to a host of aircraft.
A key aspect to the pod is that it is designed to be agnostic and suitable for use on any platform and communicate via a range of vendors.
According to a company statement: ‘The pod utilises an existing airframe structure that is already certified for captive carry-on multiple platforms. Work on the contract is underway and we expect to deliver [the] first unit(s) by 2025.
‘Collins will leverage ongoing work under the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) contracts as well as our larger company experience of developing SATCOM terminals.’
A range of contracts have been awarded to several companies since DEUCSI was launched by USAFRL in 2017 and is designed to develop ‘path-agnostic communications’ enabled by ‘resilient, high-bandwidth, high-availability USAF communications and data-sharing capabilities.’
In October 2021, USAFRL awarded L3Harris a $5.7 million contract to integrate a low-Earth orbit (LEO) terminal into rotary-wing aircraft to further advance aerial communications capability under DEUCSI.
In September, 2020 Raytheon Intelligence & Space was awarded a $13.1 million contract aimed at connecting military jets to emerging commercial satellite internet constellations in LEO.
You may also like
More from Digital Battlespace
-
![Australia looks towards space with force restructure, investment and training]()
-
![EID to unveil new vehicle communication system at DSEI]()
EID to unveil new vehicle communication system at DSEI
The Portuguese company’s naval communications system is in service across more than a dozen countries. It has turned to its home nation for support in developing a new vehicle based C2 system.
-
![Chess Dynamics successfully demonstrates Vision4ce AI-driven tracker]()
Chess Dynamics successfully demonstrates Vision4ce AI-driven tracker
The Vision4ce Deep Embedded Feature Tracking (DEFT) technology software is designed to process video and images by blending traditional computer vision with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to present actionable information from complex environments.
-
![Wave Relay devices cleared for security use on commercial systems in industry trend]()
Wave Relay devices cleared for security use on commercial systems in industry trend
Persistent Systems has been cleared by National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit sensitive data on commercial networks. The devices are added to the NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) component list which also includes other companies’ products providing the same security.
-
![UK teases cyber spending boost in Strategic Defence Review ahead of “imminent” release]()
UK teases cyber spending boost in Strategic Defence Review ahead of “imminent” release
The release of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) has been long promised as mid-year. It is possible it could be as early as 2 June although the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to play its cards close to its chest.
-
![Intelsat emphasises SATCOM resilience for SOF in contested domains (video)]()
Intelsat emphasises SATCOM resilience for SOF in contested domains (video)
Intelsat outlines how its multi-orbit SATCOM architecture is enhancing connectivity and resilience for special operations forces operating in degraded and contested environments.
