CesiumAstro has been contracted by the Space Development Agency (SDA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for its multiple-beam L-band actively electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna technology. The Link-16-compatible AESA antennas are needed to fulfill SDA’s Transport Layer mission requirements for U.S. and allied military forces in advance of a global satellite communications infrastructure, the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) global satellite network. The PWSA is being established as a low-earth-orbit-satellite (LEOS) constellation for DoD communications to and from space.
Shey Sabripour, founder and CEO of CesiumAstro, said: “This award spotlights the upcoming advancements in national security made possible by software-defined active phased array antennas. Providing SDA with a multibeam array increases architecture flexibility and capacity for enhanced theater coverage.” The multiple-beam operation supports an increased number of users with interconnectivity to multiple LEOS (see the figure). Trey Pappas, vice-president of business development at CesiumAstro, added: “Our modular solution scales to support a wide variety of missions. As a retired Marine Corps aviation officer, I greatly appreciate this capability as a game-changer to adapt the Transport Layer to fully support tactical users across the globe.”