The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) – which operates within the Department of Defense (DoD) to accelerate the military’s adoption of leading commercial technologies – is looking to industry for space-based solutions that can supply and augment communications capabilities.
DIU is looking for a Hybrid Space Architecture (HSA) “to integrate emergent commercial sensor and communications capabilities with U.S. government space systems while incorporating best-in-class commercial practices to secure and defend the network across multiple domains.”
“Use cases span the full range of commercial, civil, national security, and allied communications,” stated the DIU.
This is the DIU’s second HSA solicitation, after it awarded four contracts in November 2022 to help build the “internet of space” and connect ground communications systems with diverse satellite networks.
The DIU said the latest solicitation has four areas of interest, including persistent sensing, data transport, high-performance edge compute, and data fusion.
“This includes military operations in support of warfighters at the tactical edge and across all domains, be it land, sea, or air, transmitting or receiving time-sensitive situational awareness and decision-making information to yield effects across the strategic, operational and tactical levels through multiple communication layers and battle management command, control and communications (BMC3) architectures,” added the DIU.
The DIU will also collaborate with the Space Force’s Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) to find suitable solutions for the space communication program as part of the service’s effort to modernize its technological capabilities.
“In the space communications arena, legacy government systems are extremely capable but are reliant on proprietary data architectures that are not scalable or easily integrated,” stated the DIU.
“New commercial space systems leverage modern information architectures based on open standards which improve speed, latency, scalability, and interoperability,” it added.
