Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully completed its first over-the-air demonstration of a hybrid satellite communications (SATCOM) solution, providing seamless connection with Viasat and a commercial proliferated low Earth orbit (PLEO) communications provider. The demonstration validated resilient, uninterrupted connectivity while rapidly switching between constellations and orbits.
As a prime systems integrator, Northrop Grumman’s hybrid SATCOM solution enhances communication for pilots and operators between space, air and ground.
This capability increases mission effectiveness by making it exceedingly difficult for adversarial threats to disrupt U.S. communications across multiple orbits, providers and frequency bands.
Demonstrated for the Air Force Research Laboratory, this technology is an integral part of the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet program, also known as Global Lightning.
Steven Conn, director of advanced communications and signals intelligence, Northrop Grumman: “Northrop Grumman is responding to the U.S. Air Force’s need for rapid deployment of resilient communications to develop and field the technologies required by our warfighters to meet today’s challenging missions. This successful test, leveraging a diverse team of commercial and defense SATCOM providers, is critical for the pace of maturity on the Global Lightning program and the ability to begin flight testing in the near future.”
The Northrop Grumman hybrid SATCOM terminal is capable of hosting nine modems with network routing, security and encryption for mission networks. The terminal alternates among the modems if network failures occur to maintain resilient connectivity for the user.
The demonstration proved communications diversity with a connection to a commercial PLEO communications provider at Ku frequencies in low-Earth orbit and Viasat at Ka frequencies through its ViaSat-3 F1 satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The hybrid SATCOM terminal includes a Northrop Grumman radio outfitted with an antenna provided by GetSat.