Lt. Col. Allen Varghese, deputy director of DIU’s Space Portfolio, speaking at MILSATCOM USA on June 16. Photo: Via Satellite
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is lining up funding for a project that will enable Department of Defense (DoD) entities to actively respond to electromagnetic interference (EMI) incidents against commercial operators.
A contract vehicle is in place for a prototype that would leverage industry data to quickly report commercial satcom interference events to entities with Title 10 authorities, according to U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Allen Varghese, deputy director of DIU’s Space Portfolio. Title 10 outlines the role of the U.S. Armed Forces.
“While commercial companies are focusing on resuming operations, can we get that data, get it to the operator and funnel it to Title 10 entities that can prosecute that data — characterize it, geolocate and do what they need to do to prevent that from happening again?” Varghese told a satcom industry audience Monday at MILSATCOM USA. “We’re working with multinational Joint Commercial Operations cell (JCO) to prototype that capability.”
DIU is closing on funding for the project with an unnamed vendor in collaboration with the JCO. At this stage, the project is intended to work with commercial partners to take existing data on interference events and “prototype getting that data back to the operations floor and funneling in to those that can do something about it,” Varghese explained.
With a growing reliance on commercial satcom across the DoD, mitigating commercial satcom interference is a key element to resiliency. The JCO operations floor is aware of interference incidents, but it often takes days for the information to reach them, Varghese told Via Satellite. Commercial operators and service providers actively monitor and collect data on interference, but their priority is to maintain service.
“There’s no incentive for them to do anything with that interference data — geolocating it, characterizing it,” he told Via Satellite. “So, we ask them: What would it look like if we paid for that data and then we give that to the operators on the ops floor so they can do something with that data?”
Commercial satellite operators have been subject to a growing number of threats, including cyberattacks and electromagnetic interference. U.S. Space Force has sought to mitigate those threats through both classified and unclassified information-sharing programs and through offices like the JCO and Commercial Integration Cell.
While the DIU project is not yet approved, it would help operations, Varghese noted. “If we know where an emitter is, we can characterize that emitter; we can prosecute against that emitter and use Title 10 capabilities.”
The project would be part of DIU’s core lines of effort, which include resilient communications, persistent sensing and fusion for space domain awareness, manufacturing and supply chain resiliency, responsive space and advanced power and propulsion.
In addressing the need for assured, low-latency, multi-path satcom, DIU is also working to reduce latency for data transmitted on-orbit and in contested environments. The effort includes a procurement project with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to achieve optical communications interoperability among government and commercial constellations. It builds off DARPA’s Space-BACN and seeks to incentivize commercial providers to develop interoperable gateways and longer-range laser communications.
According to Varghese, the project will not be a full modem, but a software-defined, reprogrammable photonics-on-a-chip to switch between different vendors’ waveforms.
Given the contested RF domain and growing concerns about electromagnetic interference, U.S. Space Force leaders are keenly interested in long-range laser comms, especially space-to-ground optical communications as an alternative data route.
