Kickstarted by DIU in 2021, the HSA program is developing a space-based architecture that can rapidly deliver critical warfighting data by combining commercial-built technologies with military and civilian space assets. Companies contracted under the program will spend the next year prototyping their capabilities at multiple operational demonstrations to lay the foundation for an operational pilot architecture to be ready by 2026, according to DIU.

While HSA is being led by DIU, the Pentagon’s tech innovation arm is working closely with the Space Force, the Air Force Research Lab, combatant commands and other military organizations on the effort.

“Together with DIU we’re accelerating the integration of commercial capabilities through HSA demonstrations and pilot efforts to scale quickly into a resilient, multi-orbit architecture supporting the DoD’s vision for seamless, uninterrupted global communications. These efforts exemplify the power of whole-of-government and industry collaboration in delivering real-world capability at speed,” Lt. Col. Tim Trimailo, director of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office (COMSO), said in a statement. Trimailo recently took the helm at COMSO following the departure of Col. Richard Kniseley in April.

The 12 new firms added to HSA include Capella Space, EdgeCortix, Eutelsat America Corp./OneWeb Technologies, Fairwinds Technologies/AST Space Mobile, Illumina Computing Group, Lockheed Martin, MapLarge, SES Government Solutions, Skycorp, SkyFi, Ursa Space Systems and Viasat.

DIU already had 12 companies working on the project after handing out initial contracts in 2022: Aalyria Technologies, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Kuiper, Anduril, Astranis Space, ATLAS Space Operations, Enveil, Google, Palantir, Planet Labs Federal, Microsoft and SpiderOak.

The upcoming prototype demonstrations will occur across U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Southern Command, DIU said in a news release. Specifically, the vendors will develop and demonstrate different technologies that enable space-based data collection, transport, processing and dissemination to various military units.

“The HSA network has the potential to increase network resilience by employing multi-path routing of communications to optimize data transport and mitigate adverse effects caused by weather or other obstructions,” the DIU release stated. “HSA seeks to integrate commercial persistent sensing, data fusion, high-performance edge compute and resilient data transport capabilities to significantly enhance real-time access to information.”

The HSA team is also preparing to activate a “live hybrid network for demonstrations, exercise support, and further integration of tactics and warfighting capabilities,” per the release.

Over the last few years, the Space Force has sought to take advantage of the rapidly growing commercial space industry as a way to incorporate the latest technologies and capabilities into its systems. The service’s 2024 Commercial Space Strategy calls for commercial solutions to be integrated into a “hybrid space architecture,” while also identifying seven mission areas where commercial capabilities are most beneficial.

“DIU’s ability to rapidly integrate and deliver a hybrid space network architecture is testament to its process of allowing commercial innovators to solve complex problems at speed and scale by applying their solutions to DOD’s problems,” Steve Butow, director of DIU’s space portfolio, said in a statement.

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According to a post added to DIU’s website Wednesday, the organization is looking for commercial solutions addressing four capability areas: persistent sensing, data transport, high-performance edge computing and data fusion.

The Hybrid Space Architecture effort, first launched in 2021, aims to create a space-based network setup for military users that is augmented by satellites and other innovations developed by the commercial sector. DIU is collaborating with the Space Force’s Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC), the Air Force Research Laboratory’s space vehicles directorate and Space Systems Command on the program. 

“In the space communications arena, legacy government systems are extremely capable but are reliant on proprietary data architectures that are not scalable or easily integrated,” the solicitation states. “New commercial space systems leverage modern information architectures based on open standards which improve speed, latency, scalability, and interoperability.”

By creating an agile and resilient communications capability in space, DIU considers the Hybrid Space Architecture to be a critical enabler to the Pentagon’s vision for future warfighting known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

It “will provide secure, assured, low latency, and multi-path communications across a scalable, resilient and multi-domain network. The HSA must also be flexible enough to remain relevant and trusted during times of rapid technological change and dynamic threat environments,” the solicitation notes.

Proposals from industry are due by Dec. 11 and must address at least one of the four focus areas that cover a range of technologies and use cases.

For example, DIU is looking for commercial space-based sensors, including capabilities “for centrally routing and managing commercial collection requests necessary for global ordering, storing, and accessing commercial sensor data,” according to the solicitation.

Another focus area calls for edge computing solutions that enable autonomous processing of advanced analytics and workflow algorithms in remote environments that will help warfighters in remote locations receive information at faster rates.

The remaining capability areas cover scalable data transport solutions that enable low latency communications — including  for both line-of-site and beyond-line-of-site connections — as well as data fusion tools for “secure data aggregation and analysis to provide or enable modeling and simulation, mission planning, mission management, and execution decision point criteria for end users and decision makers.”

This is the second solicitation sent to industry for the Hybrid Space Architecture. The first was posted in 2021 and focused on multi-path network orchestration, multi-source data fusion, cloud-based computing and more.

DIU has since awarded contracts to at least eight companies for prototyping work on the program: Aalyria, Anduril, Atlas, Enveil, SpiderOak Mission Systems, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Microsoft Azure Space.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the Defense Innovation Unit aims to connect the Defense Department with sectors of the commercial world that have readily available technologies with military applications.

The organization is primed to move toward a new operational phase referred to as “DIU 3.0” by its director, Doug Beck, that will see deeper collaboration efforts between the military services, other Pentagon offices, and international partners and allies to better scale commercial technologies for warfighters.

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