Retour aux nouvelles

16 janvier 2020 | International, C4ISR

The Pentagon wants help for its satellites to talk to each other

By: Nathan Strout

The Space Development Agency wants its satellites to be able to easily talk to each other and is considering using optical intersatellite links for communications within its future low earth orbit space architecture.

Now, the organization is looking for industry's help on what standards should be used for those links.

On Jan. 15, the agency issued a request for information to industry to inform its attempt to establish an Optical Intersatellite Link Open Standard.

Most satellites don't speak with each other directly. Instead, they utilize radio-frequency communications with a ground station to relay communications between satellites. Some satellites, however, are able to use optical links to provide direct communications between satellites without a ground station acting as an intermediary. The SDA wants to use this technology for what it calls its “transport layer,” the backbone of its plans for a new space architecture in low earth orbit.

The SDA was established in March 2019 to design the Department of Defense's future threat-driven space architecture, a setup it has since defined as a multi-layered constellation of hundreds of small satellites providing several capabilities from LEO. The SDA will not be directly responsible for every layer or constellation within the architecture — most notably, the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor is being developed primarily by the Missile Defense Agency — however, the SDA will be the agency in charge of integrating those various efforts into a single architecture.

Key to the entire enterprise is the Tracking Layer, a family of satellites in low earth orbit that will facilitate the flow of data between satellites in orbit and between satellites and the ground. The Transport Layer will be essential in connecting the various sensors and capabilities on orbit with weapons systems on the ground or in the air.

In order to build that capability, the SDA plans to use Optical Intersatellite Links. The optical links will also need to provide range estimates of the distance between satellites in orbit and between satellites and the ground to within a meter in order to provide highly precise timing and positional data for the constellation. The SDA also envisions each satellite utilizing a chip-scale atomic clock as well as GPS signals.

The problem is that there are currently no industry standards for those links. To ensure the interoperability of various vendor technologies used for those links, the SDA wants to establish that standard, and it's asking industry for help.

Responses are due by Feb. 5. More specifics about what the SDA is considering for its standards is available on beta.sam.gov.

According to the request, the SDA plans to issue a solicitation for Tranche 0 of the Transportation Layer in Spring 2020, with additional solicitations for the other capability layers to follow in the summer. That first tranche, known as the war fighter immersion tranche, will consist “of tens of satellites providing periodic, regional sensing and data transport capabilities, including the capability to detect hypersonic glide vehicles and to disseminate time sensitive targeting solutions over tactical data links.” According to the agency, that initial tranche could be delivered as early as fiscal year 2022

https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2020/01/16/the-pentagon-wants-help-for-its-satellites-to-talk-to-each-other/

Sur le même sujet

  • CSAF Goldfein’s Top COVID-19 Supply Chain Worry: F-35

    23 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    CSAF Goldfein’s Top COVID-19 Supply Chain Worry: F-35

    Goldfein said up to now no major programs have shown any signs of being "in a critical state ... at risk of cancellation" due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. By THERESA HITCHENS WASHINGTON: Gen. Jay Raymond, as head of Space Command, will lead efforts to determine how to combat expected interference with GPS receivers from the future Ligado 5G wireless mobile communication network, says Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein. “We are both very concerned about this,” Goldfein told the Defense Writers Group this morning. “The best way I've heard it described ... is, if you're in a room trying to have a quiet conversation, and in the next room you've got a 500-watt speaker blaring music. Chief Raymond and I are looking at different mitigation steps,” he added. “It's a huge challenge.” Goldfein explained that, as the SPACECOM commander, Raymond is the combatant commander charged with spectrum management so any mitigation plan would be primarily his responsibility — with Goldfein serving a support function as the service chief. However, he noted that, since Raymond is dual-hatted as chief of Space Force, the two peers “will work together closely with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide options” to DoD Secretary Mark Esper. Much of Goldfein's conversation with reporters this morning centered on the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the service and its programs, as well as his service's responses. A few weeks ago the service went through what he called a “reset to the new normal” as senior officials worked out methodologies to ensure its highest priority missions could be maintained “despite a 15 to 20 percent infection rate.”

  • US submarine production rate will not hinder AUKUS

    21 novembre 2023 | International, Naval

    US submarine production rate will not hinder AUKUS

    Opinion: The industrial base will be able to meet US Navy requirements and deliver boats to Australia under the tri-national pact, argues Rep. Joe Courtney.

  • The Army wants to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere

    3 juin 2019 | International, C4ISR

    The Army wants to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere

    By: Mark Pomerleau As the Army moves forward with its multipronged network modernization, the branch has set its sights on servicewide communications capabilities integrated from top brass down to the smallest tactical units. Army leaders expressed the need for technologies to enable units' communication from the tip of the spear down to systems in vehicles and at command units. “The ‘integrated' part of ‘integrated tactical network' is making sure we don't field a set of stovepiped capabilities that do not provide the robust capability that we think we want for the future fight,” Maj. Gen. David Bassett, program executive officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, told C4ISRNET. “We've got to field this as an integrated capability. It's not just about focusing on one piece or the other. We've got to work it all together along with network operations tools that help soldiers employ those system.” The Army's integrated tactical network (ITN) is described as a mix of existing programs of record and commercial off-the-shelf capabilities that allow a unit to communicate in congested environments and provide situational awareness. The network also feeds into programs such as the Command Post Computing Environment (CPCE). CPCE is a web-enabled system that will consolidate disparate command post tools, programs and tasks and help the Army to react faster than the enemy. This includes the Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR), Global Command and Control System-Army (GCCS-A), Command Web and Command Post of the Future (CPOF). This uniform interface will be available from the command post to ground vehicles to dismounted soldiers, allowing each to upload and share information in a centralized database. During exercises last year, soldiers worked through how to identify targets on the ground and pass that information through the network via vest-mounted tablets and a Google Maps-type function. “Target acquisition from an operator's perspective starts in the ITN. Then it will make its way eventually to CPCE if we can get the ITN and CPCE to talk to each other, which is definitely the next bridge line for these systems,” Maj. John Intile, executive officer for 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, told C4ISRNET during a battalion event at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. The Army's fire support Command and Control (C2) system, Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS), is slated to be incorporated in CPCE after the first round of aforementioned systems. “While the integrated tactical network in our first line of effort is focused on the lower echelon war-fighting units, the Command Post Computing Environment ... is really done at the corps and down trace units,” Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, director for the network cross-functional team, told C4ISRNET. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2019/05/31/the-army-wants-to-talk-to-anyone-anytime-anywhere/

Toutes les nouvelles