• WASHINGTON - The Space Development Agency on Feb. • 23 announced a $30 million contract award to AST SpaceMobile to demonstrate its space-based cellular broadband network can connect directly with military communications devices. • AST, based in Midland, Texas, said it will use its BlueBird satellite constellation to “demonstrate resilient, low-latency tactical satellite communications.” In a series of demonstrations to be completed by December 2027, the company will attempt “seamless integration with existing tactical military radios and demonstrate how commercial satellite infrastructure can be rapidly applied for defense applications and deliver data products as-a-service to the Space Development Agency.” The firm-fixed-price award was issued under SDA’s Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit, or HALO, an Other Transaction agreement designed to fund rapid on-orbit experiments. • Space Force organization, is building the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a large constellation of low Earth orbit satellites intended to support missile warning, tracking, data transport and other military missions. • The agency’s strategy is to field satellites in iterative “tranches,” adding capability over time. • HALO serves as a proving ground for technologies that might later be folded into those operational layers.

Article Summaries:

  • WASHINGTON - The Space Development Agency on Feb. 23 announced a $30 million contract award to AST SpaceMobile to demonstrate its space-based cellular broadband network can connect directly with military communications devices. AST, based in Midland, Texas, said it will use its BlueBird satellite constellation to “demonstrate resilient, low-latency tactical satellite communications.” In a series of demonstrations to be completed by December 2027, the company will attempt “seamless integration with existing tactical military radios and demonstrate how commercial satellite infrastructure can be

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