Pentagon signed contracts with Microsoft and Amazon to develop space communications for national security

In early November 2022, the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit announced new agreements with Amazon Web Services, Kuiper Government Solutions, Microsoft Azure Space and SpiderOak Mission Systems for a project to demonstrate space communications using interconnected commercial and government networks.

The Defense Innovation Division has awarded contracts to three Seattle-based units as well as SpiderOak Mission Systems, a space cybersecurity enterprise based in Washington as part of the second phase of the "Hybrid Space Architecture" project. They joined the four winners of the first phase of the project: Aalyria, Anduril, Atlas and Enveil.

Pentagon signed contracts with Microsoft and Amazon to develop space communications for national security

"Hybrid Space Architecture" is an experimental communication concept that connects users from around the world through modern and future communications. According to the director of the space department Steve Butov, the additional four awards in this competition provide new opportunities and at the same time are easily integrated into this dynamic and innovative team of information and network infrastructure, which will ensure sustainable communication and access to future technologies around the world and beyond.

Phase I focused on the creation of a "hybrid gateway satellite" to develop next-generation networking technologies. Phase II is aimed at expanding the operating network to connect terrestrial cloud and Internet services to commercial satellite constellations to provide secure communication through a hybrid public-private network.

Among the project participants are the US Space Force Center for the Analysis of Combat Operations in Space, the Office of Spacecraft of the Air Force Research Laboratory and. Air Force Space Systems Command Under the hybrid architecture program, companies are expected to collaborate in areas such as networking and interoperability with existing assets. US Department of Defense The prototyping and demonstration work carried out as part of this project will support the Space Force's plans to develop and deploy a hybrid communications architecture with additional levels of satellites to improve network stability.

The architecture will also build on the cloud and communication capabilities provided by Amazon Web Services. A blog post from Amazon Web Services said the contract aims to support efforts to better understand the role of commercial cloud services and the infrastructure they can play in the development of hybrid space architecture.

The first phase of a separate contract involves modeling key components of a hybrid data architecture that can support a variety of mission scenarios and needs, including on-demand weather data. The second phase of the contract will use the concepts and requirements developed in the first phase to test the hardware and software in a cycle.^[1]

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