Air Force Commits Millions to Demonstrate ‘Space Internet’

The Air Force plans to enable and demonstrate a space internet that the military can use to connect and communicate via constellations of commercial spacecraft operating in various orbits. In a presolicitation released by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), officials confirmed intent to award two to five contracts worth up to $40 million each for “multi-band, multi-orbit communication experiments.” The work would span a couple years, and AFRL already has sights set on some use cases of interest. Another application the lab is exploring is for airborne communications. These experiments mark the latest component of the lab’s Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet, or DEUCSI program, which originally launched in 2017. Specifically, the service aims to connect military platforms through multiple commercial space internet constellations in different orbit regimes—such as low-, medium-, and geosynchronous earth orbits using the emerging “common user terminal” capabilities. Ideally, military users would be able to tap into services from different providers or orbits, depending on their needs.