With pilot planned for 2026, DIU brings additional vendors into ‘hybrid’ space satellite network project

The Defense Innovation Unit announced Monday that 12 new vendors have been added to its Hybrid Space Architecture project, which looks to pilot a space communications architecture integrated with both commercial and government assets by next year. 

Kickstarted by DIU in 2021, the HSA program is developing a space-based architecture that can rapidly deliver critical warfighting data by combining commercial-built technologies with military and civilian space assets. Companies contracted under the program will spend the next year prototyping their capabilities at multiple operational demonstrations to lay the foundation for an operational pilot architecture to be ready by 2026, according to DIU.

While HSA is being led by DIU, the Pentagon’s tech innovation arm is working closely with the Space Force, the Air Force Research Lab, combatant commands and other military organizations on the effort.

“Together with DIU we’re accelerating the integration of commercial capabilities through HSA demonstrations and pilot efforts to scale quickly into a resilient, multi-orbit architecture supporting the DoD’s vision for seamless, uninterrupted global communications. These efforts exemplify the power of whole-of-government and industry collaboration in delivering real-world capability at speed,” Lt. Col. Tim Trimailo, director of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office (COMSO), said in a statement. Trimailo recently took the helm at COMSO following the departure of Col. Richard Kniseley in April.

The 12 new firms added to HSA include Capella Space, EdgeCortix, Eutelsat America Corp./OneWeb Technologies, Fairwinds Technologies/AST Space Mobile, Illumina Computing Group, Lockheed Martin, MapLarge, SES Government Solutions, Skycorp, SkyFi, Ursa Space Systems and Viasat.

DIU already had 12 companies working on the project after handing out initial contracts in 2022: Aalyria Technologies, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Kuiper, Anduril, Astranis Space, ATLAS Space Operations, Enveil, Google, Palantir, Planet Labs Federal, Microsoft and SpiderOak.

The upcoming prototype demonstrations will occur across U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Southern Command, DIU said in a news release. Specifically, the vendors will develop and demonstrate different technologies that enable space-based data collection, transport, processing and dissemination to various military units.

“The HSA network has the potential to increase network resilience by employing multi-path routing of communications to optimize data transport and mitigate adverse effects caused by weather or other obstructions,” the DIU release stated. “HSA seeks to integrate commercial persistent sensing, data fusion, high-performance edge compute and resilient data transport capabilities to significantly enhance real-time access to information.”

The HSA team is also preparing to activate a “live hybrid network for demonstrations, exercise support, and further integration of tactics and warfighting capabilities,” per the release.

Over the last few years, the Space Force has sought to take advantage of the rapidly growing commercial space industry as a way to incorporate the latest technologies and capabilities into its systems. The service’s 2024 Commercial Space Strategy calls for commercial solutions to be integrated into a “hybrid space architecture,” while also identifying seven mission areas where commercial capabilities are most beneficial.

“DIU’s ability to rapidly integrate and deliver a hybrid space network architecture is testament to its process of allowing commercial innovators to solve complex problems at speed and scale by applying their solutions to DOD’s problems,” Steve Butow, director of DIU’s space portfolio, said in a statement.