{"id":271170,"date":"2025-10-02T06:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T06:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/271170\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T06:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T06:12:10","slug":"starlink-compatible-radios-sought-for-golden-dome-interceptor-satellite-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/271170\/","title":{"rendered":"Starlink-compatible radios sought for Golden Dome interceptor satellite demo"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Space Force\u2019s procurement arm has opened a competition for companies<\/a> to design a compact radio-frequency (RF) communications terminal that would allow a satellite to connect directly to SpaceX\u2019s Starlink broadband network, according to a solicitation published Sept. 16.<\/p>\n

The Space Systems Command (SSC), through its spectrum warfare office, said the project is in support of Golden Dome, a missile defense shield directed by President Trump in an executive order that envisions a constellation of interceptor satellites capable of detecting, tracking and destroying hostile missiles shortly after launch.<\/p>\n

The planned demonstration would use radio-frequency communications terminals to establish satellite-to-satellite links between a Starlink payload and a mock space-based interceptor (SBI).\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the broad agency announcement (BAA), SSC is seeking low size, weight and power (SWaP) radios that can be demonstrated on-orbit within 12 months. The radios must operate in the L- and S-band spectrum and use Link-182, a proprietary waveform developed by SpaceX to enable external platforms to connect with Starlink.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government believes that the best approach for a low size, weight, and power (SWaP) solution in support of Golden Dome space-based interceptor (SBI) risk reduction and notional comm requirements will fall within the L\/S-band spectrum and use the Link-182 waveform,\u201d the BAA stated.<\/p>\n

The L\/S bands are used in military and commercial applications because they provide more reliable signals in contested or degraded environments, including jamming, poor weather or during close-proximity maneuvers with other spacecraft.<\/p>\n

The radios must be space-qualified, carry Type-1 encryption, and be capable of operating across orbits ranging from low Earth orbit (LEO) to geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO). Contractors are expected to rely on high-heritage components to meet the accelerated schedule.<\/p>\n

SSC is asking vendors to demonstrate a LEO-to-LEO space-to-space communications link between a Link-182 payload and a Link-182-compatible radio hosted on a vendor satellite simulating an interceptor. An additional requirement is development of an Application Programming Interface (API) to enable pointing between the two payloads.<\/p>\n

Competitive process<\/strong><\/p>\n

A BAA is a competitive contracting mechanism typically used by the U.S. government for research and development projects. The first call for white papers under this announcement is titled \u201cLink-182 space-to-space comms system development and demonstration,\u201d with submissions due Oct. 6.<\/p>\n

Phase 1 selections will be invited to submit full technical and cost proposals in Phase 2. The government envisions radios that could be manufactured at scale \u2014 up to 10,000 units \u2014 within two to five years, pointing to Golden Dome\u2019s potential as a large-scale missile defense architecture.<\/p>\n

While the Golden Dome program is managed by a separate Pentagon program office, the Space Systems Command has played a supporting role in industry outreach efforts, including issuing a recent request for information<\/a> on space-based interceptor prototypes.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Space Force\u2019s procurement arm has opened a competition for companies to design a compact…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":271171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[77494,159,16988,783,11182,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-271170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-golden-dome","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-sn","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-starlink","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115303097703482470","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}