Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global leader in satellite communications, today announced it was selected by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to deliver networking capability in support of the Replicator initiative by providing highly resilient command and control (C2) connectivity across unmanned systems. Replicator aims to deliver large masses of uncrewed, all-domain attritable autonomous (ADA2) systems for warfighter operations support and aligns with the overall U.S. Department of Defense effort to accelerate delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter at speed and scale. DIU announced vendor awards last month under two separate Commercial Solution Openings (CSO) contracts for software services and support.
Under the DIU Opportunistic, Resilient & Innovative Expeditionary Network Topology (ORIENT) project award, Viasat will provide a Multi-Domain Uncrewed Secure Integrated Communications (MUSIC) architecture with software-defined networking as the network component to enable the seamless and resilient connectivity of autonomous systems using multi-transport pathways. Specifically, MUSIC is an optimized configuration of Viasat’s NetAgility software-defined networking (SDN) capability that is designed to respond to uncrewed swarm communications operational needs by enabling secure, seamless transport and network orchestration to optimize connectivity for the mission. The MUSIC mesh network overlay also enables secure information sharing and C2 among disparate autonomous systems.
“Viasat is excited to support the Defense Innovation Unit and the Replicator initiative through project ORIENT by helping advance resilience and enable collaboration across multiple autonomous systems for warfighter operations,” said David Schmolke, Vice President of Viasat Mission Connections and Cybersecurity. “The coordinated use of autonomous systems offers critical operational advantages as the demands to quickly collect and share mission data grow, including executing those missions safely without putting warfighters in harm’s way. MUSIC and NetAgility network orchestration is an optimal fit for addressing the network and advanced C2 requirements to enable resilient, multi-path communications through contested and denied environments.”
Viasat has worked to mature the MUSIC solution in alignment with the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD R&E) for the past 18 months as part of its Technology Readiness and Experimentation (T-REX) efforts to access promising capabilities. This past October, Viasat’s team worked with OUSD R&E to demonstrate MUSIC’s application in connecting autonomous maritime systems during the Autonomous Warrior 24 exercise, which took place in Australia supporting the AUKUS (United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom) partnership.
Visit Viasat’s website for more information about Viasat’s NetAgility and software-defined intelligent network solutions.
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