Multibeam antenna to improve communication passes first Air Force trials
C4ISRNET
June 3, 2021
The Air Force doesn’t want to rely on any single constellation in any single orbital range. As laid out in the U.S. Space Force’s Fighting SATCOM Vision, the military wants to ensure that it’s systems can communicate via satellite even if one satellite — or even a whole constellation — is disabled. In order to get there, the military needs antennas that can connect to multiple satellites in multiple orbits. For example, if a weapon system is primarily using a government satellite in geostationary orbit to communicate and that satellite is taken offline, then the antenna could ensure connectivity by switching to a commercial constellation in low Earth orbit or medium Earth orbit.