Aerospace and Defense Review : News

Delivering the right data means quickly collecting, analyzing, fusing, and sharing information. Battle networks must be able to fast-track the flow of useful information to enable troops to make effective and faster decisions. As data transforms all areas, including the battlefield, future battle networks are likely to rely more on space systems to ensure the network is adequately global, resilient, and responsive. Though a battle network’s resilience is crucial, it means little if the network is not responsive. This is because a key characteristic of warfare in a digital era is how dependent contemporary militaries, specifically weapon systems, are on data. But more than raw or unrefined data, weapon systems and troops need refined data that is easy to act upon. Providing the correct data means quickly collecting, analyzing, fusing, and sharing information. Battle networks must be able to expedite the flow of helpful information to enable troops to make better and faster decisions. Now, new space technologies—such as the internet from space, novel earth imagery, and AI—and lower implementation costs are essential elements of the emerging commercial space sector and future battle networks. Given the overlap between commercial and battle network requirements, commercial technology can supplement the military space sector in interesting ways. For instance, unlike a fighter aircraft or an aircraft carrier, which are purposely built for the military, many of the elements required in the space segment of a battle network could be commercial during peacetime but serve military purposes during periods of conflict. Just as the U.S. used commercial imagery and weather forecasting to enable combat operations during the Gulf War, commercial satellite communication, imagery, data processing, and other capabilities critical to the future battle network could be utilized as a service when the US military needs them. The military will likely require some military-specific space segment assets, but commercial capabilities can offer a highly efficient way of augmenting military systems to provide a future battle network with the ideal reach, resilience, and responsiveness. ...Read more

Appendix N is intended to bridge NASA’s Lunar Exploration Transportation Services (LETS) program, where NASA will buy crewed lunar landing services for later Artemis missions, much as it does commercial crew and cargo services for the International Space Station. NASA will provide $146 million to five companies, representing the three teams that previously competed to develop the Artemis lunar lander to perform studies for future lunar lander concepts. NASA announced the awards for what the agency calls Appendix N of its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP). In July, NASA issued a request for proposals for NextSTEP Appendix N to support work on what NASA calls “sustainable” human landing system concepts intended to support missions after Artemis 3, the first crewed lunar landing mission of the Artremis program. Three of the awardees are part of the so-called “National Team” led by Blue Origin, which received $25.6 million. Lockheed Martin received $35.2 million and Northrop Grumman $34.8 million. While the three companies received individual awards, a Lockheed executive confirmed they are still participating in the Blue Origin-led team while also studying other options. “Lockheed Martin continues to be committed to the National Team and its thoughtful, safe and sustainable lander system,” Lisa Callahan, vice president, and general manager of commercial, civil space at Lockheed Martin, said. A Northrop executive offered a similar assessment. “We continue to work in partnership with Blue Origin and the National Team to meet NASA’s ambitious goals to return to the moon and Mars,” said Steve Krein, vice president of civil and commercial satellites at Northrop Grumman, in a statement to SpaceNews. “In addition to those collective efforts, we are also providing our unique skills and capabilities to exploring alternative perspectives for a long-term sustainable program to take humans back to the moon to stay.” The Blue Origin-led team was one of three bidders for the Human Landing System (HLS) program, where NASA funds the development of a lunar lander and a demonstration mission. Dynetics, another HLS bidder, received $40.8 million. Both Blue Origin’s National Team and Dynetics lost to SpaceX, which won a $2.9 billion award in April for a lunar lander based on its Starship vehicle. SpaceX also received an Appendix N award valued at $9.4 million, by far the smallest of the five made by NASA. Neither NASA nor any of the companies disclosed details of what they plan to do with the awards. However, NASA said the funding would support concept studies and risk-reduction  ...Read more

GX is the world's first and only globally available, seamless mobile wideband service. In U.S. government service since July 2014, GX has established itself as the gold standard for reliable communication across land, sea, and air domains for assured mobile connectivity. Inmarsat Government, the leading provider of secure, global, mission-critical telecommunications to the U.S. government, Orbit Communications Systems Ltd., a leading provider of airborne communications solutions, and Boeing Commercial Satellite Services, announced that the Orbit GX30 multi-purpose terminal (MPT) demonstration system has successfully completed the first phase of testing with government users over Inmarsat Global Xpress (GX) and high-capacity, global military Ka-band. This follows the delivery of the Orbit GX46 MPT 46 cm antenna systems that have been in production since 2020. Boeing's managed network service and secure commanding of the Inmarsat high-capacity, global military Ka-band (HCX) system provides U.S. government users with global "center of the beam" connectivity. Using hosted payloads on the Inmarsat 5 satellites, Boeing provides users 100-740 MHz of steerable, bi-directional spot beam capacity. This allows manual and closed-loop steering to always keep the designated user or platform in the center of the beam with the highest possible radiated power. The GX30 terminal delivered a 126 Mbps+ forward link and a 29 Mbps+ return link. The MPT terminal is designed to maintain uninterrupted connectivity to the network during all flight phases. GX30 is a modular, multi-role terminal that operates in both the GX commercial and military Ka-band utilizing a 30 cm antenna. The fully integrated three (3) Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) terminal consists of an RF antenna assembly (which includes all RF components), a Ka-band Power Supply Unit (KPSU), and a Modem Unit including Inmarsat's G-MODMAN for Global Xpress service and the Boeing WC5000 for Mil-Ka high throughput applications, making it one of the easiest to install and service tail-mount terminals available. The GX30 groundbreaking compact terminal design has the lowest weight on the tail (less than 10 kg) and the lowest power consumption of any 30 cm terminal on the market today. It was developed for installation in a range of business jets, military aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It complies with industry regulations and standards, including MIL-STD-188-164C, RTCA DO-160G, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The transmit performance of the terminal is best in class, and its lightweight, small footprint enables worldwide connectivity, supporting the full Ka frequency band. It has been built to be compatible with the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) system, thus making it an ideal choice for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Furthermore, the terminal supports high return data link rates making it the optimal choice for users and missions, where sending large amounts of data from the aircraft is a critical aspect of the connectivity solution. Daniel Eshchar, CEO of Orbit, said: "Orbit offers a complete range of airborne satellite communications terminals that maximize flexibility and enable future scalability. Built to fulfil the 'everywhere, all-the-time' coverage requirements of both the military and commercial airborne users, the GX30 MPT provides the best-in-class transmit performance under the harshest environmental conditions." ...Read more