Kratos Demonstrates Fully Virtualized SATCOM for US Army in Separate LEO and MEO Projects
In two separate demos for the US Army, Kratos, along with partners, showed how satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) could be utilized to support more agile and resilient multi-orbit, multi-mission capabilities. In the first demonstration, Kratos and satellite operator SES showed how a flexible, fully virtualized sat-ellite communications ground sys-tem could facilitate simultaneous communication pathways for resilient SATCOM.
The US Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command demo successfully showed how a soft-ware-defined network architecture could seamlessly support satellites on a “make-before-break” mode over SES’s O3b MEO satellite net-work.
“Make-before-break” refers to the ability to transfer communication sessions while the user transvers-es coverage areas of different sat-ellites—an essential capability for leveraging MEO and LEO constellations.
However, to leverage multi-orbit satellites, MILSATCOM networks require a more agile capability than current hardware-based ground sys-tems. OpenSpace®, the software-de-fined satellite ground system devel-oped by Kratos, demonstrated the agility needed for these future-ori-ented operations.
In the second demonstration, Kratos, Telesat Government Solutions, and Cobham Satcom showed how a flexible network architecture could dynamically support simultaneous communication pathways for LEO-based SATCOM. LEO constellations offer the stra-tegic benefits of lower latency con-nectivity and redundancy. “Every mission has different requirements for connectivity, which require maximum flexibility for leveraging multiple satel-lites, networks, and network elements,” said Chris Badgett, VP of Technology for Kratos. “Only a software-defined approach can provide the level of adaptability at mission speed to maximize those avail-able network resources.” Kratos has worked with several satellite service operators over the past year to test and verify the func-tionality of OpenSpace as a gateway and edge platform at each of the major orbital belts, GEO, MEO, and LEO. In future conflicts, multi-orbit operations will be crucial to seam-lessly sharing information amongst joint military branches and international partners. Both projects were funded through the Network Cross-Func-tional Team (N-CFT) established by the Army Futures Command.