WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit issued a brand new solicitation for proposals from private corporations for a project generally known as the Hybrid Space Architecture, an initiative launched in 2021 to mesh business satellite broadband innovations with military networks.
DIU is working with the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory on efforts to attach satellite networks and ground communications systems so military users can get data faster and more securely than is currently possible.
Based in Mountain View, California, DIU was established in 2015 to assist DoD access and integrate business technologies from startup corporations and other non-traditional defense contractors. The organization serves as a bridge between defense agencies and business tech corporations.
The Hybrid Space Architecture goals to reap the benefits of business satellite broadband services, in-space laser communication, cloud computing, quantum-secure encryption and other innovations.
Eight vendors thus far chosen
DIU in 2022 chosen eight corporations to work on the project: Aalyria, Anduril, Atlas Space Operations, Enveil. SpiderOak Mission Systems, Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Microsoft Azure Space. Corporations get contracts to prototype concepts so their value could be evaluated.
The brand new solicitation released Nov. 29 focuses on 4 key areas: persistent sensing, data transport, high-performance edge computing and data fusion. Proposals are due Dec. 11.
Persistent sensing includes business solutions for space-based sensing, for routing and managing business collection requests, and for accessing business sensor data.
Data transport focuses on free space optical components which might be scalable to enable low latency, persistent communications.
High performance edge computing includes business solutions needed for the autonomous processing of advanced analytics and algorithms at the sting, for more timely delivery of data to users.
Data fusion focuses on secure ways to aggregate data to enable modeling, simulation and mission planning.