SES Space & Defense, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES that is focused on delivering satellite network solutions for the U.S. Government (USG), has been awarded a multi-year contract by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to conduct a series of tests to integrate space broadband services across a multi-orbit satellite network in support of the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program.
This announcement by AFRL is the third award under the DEUCSI CALL 003 Program seeking experimentation for use cases in the Arctic region and airborne comms.
The DEUCSI program is intended to establish communications with military platforms via multiple commercial space internet (CSI) constellations in GEO, MEO and LEO using a common, user terminal, with the ability to alternate between space broadband providers.
SES Space & Defense will demonstrate multi-orbit, multi-band solutions that seamlessly switch among commercial space broadband services in different frequency bands to access favorable spectrum or failover between constellations. In doing so, SES Space & Defense will leverage common hardware elements to communicate with commercial space broadband constellations and military communications systems to provide greater flexibility in communication paths while minimizing the deployment of constellation-specific hardware.
“An integrated, multi-orbit, multi-band satellite architecture is a requirement in today’s contested and congested environment for a network-centric military. The DEUCSI program is a great example to showcase SES Space & Defense’s multi-orbit, multi-band holistic approach to deliver seamless interoperability to the U.S. Air Force to achieve unparalleled situation awareness and strategic advances for mission success.” — Jim Hooper, Senior Vice President of Space Initiatives, SES Space & Defense