Commercial Satellites To Support Military Radio Communications

The Space Development Agency has awarded a $30 million contract to AST SpaceMobile USA for a demonstration that will use commercial satellites to communicate directly with US military radios. The award is the first under SDA’s Hybrid Acquisition for proliferated Low-earth Orbit program, designed to validate the use of commercial platforms for tactical satellite communication capability. AST SpaceMobile USA will utilize its BlueBird constellation of cellular broadband satellites to provide communications with military radios ‘as a service.’ The company’s space-based architecture is designed to enable high-bandwidth data transport directly from low Earth orbit. The award was announced by Breaking Defense.