The navigation know-how to be examined is two-way time switch from area
WASHINGTON – U.S. protection contractor CACI Worldwide is funding an experiment to display area applied sciences for navy use, together with an alternative choice to GPS navigation.
As a part of the firm’s plan to develop its area enterprise, CACI is launching two demonstration payloads on a York Area satellite tv for pc scheduled to fly to low Earth orbit in January aboard the SpaceX Transporter 7 rideshare.
“We’re taking a look at another PNT [positioning, navigation and timing] resolution that can work in a contested area area,” CACI’s president and CEO John Mengucci mentioned throughout a third-quarter fiscal 12 months 2022 earnings name.
“It gained’t fully change GPS, however it can help techniques on the market when GPS alerts are jammed or once they’re attacked,” he mentioned.
Non-GPS navigation from area is anticipated to change into a major enterprise alternative, Mengucci added. The navy is on the lookout for options which can be “resilient and fewer susceptible to jamming.”
The navigation know-how that will likely be examined is named two-way time switch – a method that has been used for a few years in timing purposes on the bottom. Two-way time switch in area means the satellite tv for pc sends a timing sign and a receiver on the bottom or aboard an plane sends a sign concurrently again to the satellite tv for pc.
If the experiment is profitable, CACI plans to supply the two-way time switch PNT service to the navy and different authorities companies. The corporate doesn’t plan to construct its personal satellites however would work with satellite tv for pc operators which can be deploying massive constellations to have them host the payload. A possible buyer is the U.S. Area Growth Company which is on the lookout for various PNT techniques to make sure its sensor satellites in low Earth orbit can precisely observe enemy missiles with out counting on GPS.
The second payload on this mission is for digital alerts surveillance. CACI is repurposing an digital warfare sensor system at the moment utilized by U.S. particular operations forces on the bottom to gather alerts intelligence. That know-how was developed by Mastodon Design, an organization CACI acquired in 2019.
The sensor collects alerts emitted by adversary radios or jammers and geolocates these alerts. Mengucci mentioned the corporate needs to display that know-how from area which would supply a extra persistent functionality and world protection if hosted on a lot of satellites.
“These are nice examples of taking beautiful terrestrial capabilities and investing internally to deploy them in area,” he mentioned.
Each the navigation and the digital warfare payloads had been constructed with software-defined radios from CesiumAstro, a provider of space-qualified electronics.
