Northrop Grumman moves forward on military internet enabling technologies using commercial space satellites
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – Space communications experts at Northrop Grumman Corp. are moving ahead on a project to help the U.S. Air Force capitalize on commercial space internet satellites to develop a new lightweight communications terminals for military aircraft.
Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced an $54.7 million follow-on contract in mid-September to the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in Linthicum Heights, Md., for the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) project.
On this contract, Northrop Grumman engineers seek to develop multiband satellite communications (SATCOM) antennas capable of use on military aircraft. This could enable a wide range of military planes to tap-in to commercially available SATCOM-based internet service providers like Starlink, Hughesnet, and Viasat.
Northrop Grumman and other DEUCSI contractors will establish the ability to communicate with military platforms through several different commercial space internet constellations.
The DEUCSI project seeks to develop small and lightweight satellite communications (SATCOM) systems that use commercial space internet constellations that easily integrate onto aircraft.
These airborne SATCOM systems will provide resilient, high throughput, globally available, and reliable communications using commercial internet satellites that operate in low, medium, and geostationary Earth orbits.
Other DEUCSI contractors are the RTX Raytheon segment in McKinney, Texas; Intelsat General Communications LLC in McLean, Va.; L3Harris Technologies - C5 Integrated Systems in Camden, N.J.,; 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, Colo.
DEUCSI seeks to find new ways of information distribution among land, sea, and air forces quickly to support high-speed decision-making by moving and sharing data seamlessly among fixed and mobile operating locations using constantly available, high-bandwidth, beyond-line-of-sight communications.
DEUCSI space-based capability will be called path-agnostic communications because its users will be able to communicate reliably to any location in the world without explicitly specifying which nodes of a communication network to use.
The vision for path-agnostic communications is becoming possible due to the burgeoning commercial space industry, Air Force officials say. Several commercial companies plan to establish space internet constellations consisting of hundreds to 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, taking advantage of the commercial space internet will concentrate government efforts on the few areas that are unique to Air Force applications.
The project has three phases: establish connectivity between several Air Force sites using commercial demonstration satellites and terminals; expand connectivity to many Air Force assets by proliferating user terminals to several locations and vehicle types; and special experiments to address military-unique requirements not otherwise met by commercial space internet vendors.
On this order Northrop Grumman will do the work in Linthicum, Md., and should 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.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
