Breaking Defense:

The Space Development Agency (SDA) Director Derek Tournear sees lasers for inter-satellite links as the most important new tech to build a mesh network that will allow all-domain operations, as well as targeting of incoming hypersonic missiles.

“Optical crosslink technology, that’s number one. Tactical data links from space, that’s number two. And, then, the third one is the autonomous battle management to be able to get that networking system to fit together to actually form a mesh network and respond in real time,” he told the MilSatCom Digital Week opening event yesterday.

SDA currently is primarily focused on “beyond-line-of-sight targeting for time-sensitive targets — so, for ships and mobile missiles. And, then, to do that same thing, beyond-line-of-sight targeting and tracking of advanced missile threats,” Tournear said.

Tracking modern ballistic and hypersonic missiles is the goal of one of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations being developed by SDA, as part of it’s seven-layer architecture. The low-cost satellites are supposed to “provide missile warning and tracking information to national defense authorities, and tracking and queuing data for missile defense elements,” according to SDA officials. The plan is to launch the eight sats in 2022 and demonstrate the capability…

Click here to read the full article.