The Department of Defence awarded a $36.1m contract to Raytheon for the Defence Experimentation Using Commercial Satellite Space Internet (DEUCSI) programme.
This stage of the project, named Rolling Thunder, will further establish the ability for military platforms to communicate via constellations of hundreds or thousands of commercial satellites already in orbit, with work expo cited to be completed by 6 March, 2026.
DEUCSI seeks to establish ‘path agnostic communications’ between military assets allowing high-bandwidth beyond-line-of-sight Air Force communications and data-sharing without explicit specifying the nodes of communications the network uses.
Making use of multiple commercial entities with existing networks of satellites, constellations of hundreds for thousands of satellites that compete with and will eventually outperform terrestrial internet services, should contribute to the goal of conducting future multi-domain military operations to be conducted at speeds potential adversaries cannot match.
In the DEUCSI programme’s prior stage, Global Lightning, Raytheon Intelligence & Space was awarded $13.1m for the development of a phased-array antenna to access commercial space internet satellites in low-Earth Orbit (LEO), in September 2020. Also as a part of Global Lightning, L3Harris won an $80.8m contract to leverage its Rapidly Adaptable Standards-compliant Open Radio (RASOR) for operation in data sharing.
“The military can tap into any number of new space internet services like any other customer. The sheer number of satellites – potentially thousands – could allow communications at speeds much faster than currently available to military aircraft,” said Van Andrews, senior director for advanced radio frequency programmes at RI&S.
Phase 1 of DEUCSI centres on establishing connectivity between multiple Air Force sites and assets, developing user terminals and security enhancements. Phase 2 is a process of operational experimentation, scaling operations over commercial space satellites with a proliferation of user terminals for multiple locations and vehicle types. Phase 3 is fir special purpose experimentation, to address applications that are unique to military purposes, and will entail hosting payloads on satellites spacecraft and enhancing satellites.
