SDA Aims to Complete its Mesh Satellite Network in 2024

The Space Development Agency aims to have its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a “mesh network” of laser communication crosslinks allowing data to move rapidly around the world, completed in 2024 and operational soon. 

Speaking at a SpaceNews webinar on Wednesday, Derek M. Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, said that the agency is working twice as hard to ensure the reliability of its mesh satellite communications network before it becomes operational.

The SDA aims to complete two demonstrations of its low-Earth orbit satellites by the end of 2024. It is also working to address limitations associated with the use of York Space Systems’ Link 16 waveform technology. The Federal Aviation Administration blocked the terminal’s transmission to the ground due to concerns over interference with radio navigation technologies, Air and Space Forces Magazine reported.

Tournear, a past Potomac Officers Club speaker and past Wash100 awardee, shared his optimism about completing the launch of Tranche 1 satellites in 2024 and keeping the cost per satellite down amid inflation and supply chain challenges.

The agency started sending out satellites equipped with Link 16 terminals in September 2023 to demonstrate the viability of the PWSA for providing military satellite communications.