CALL 003 - Mult-band multi-orbit communications - Amendment 1

Call 003 – Multi-Band, Multi-Orbit Communication Experiments Amendment 01

16 October 2023

Advanced Research Announcement (ARA) with Calls - FA8650-17-S-9300 Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) Federal Agency Name: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) - Integrated Capabilities Directorate
Proposal Due Date and Time: Proposals will be accepted any time after 8:00am Dayton, OH local time on 31 Jan 2022 and before 4:00pm Dayton, OH local time on 15 Dec 2023.
Anticipated Award Date: Variable, depending on proposal submission date. See below, Section 4 Schedule / Period of Performance
Anticipated Number of Awards: Estimate 2-5 Other Transaction Agreements and/or Contracts.
Anticipated Funding: See below, Section 6 Cost Objective/Funding Constraint Agreement/Contract Number: TBD (FA2385-23-X-XXXX)
1. Statement of Objectives (SOO)/Description of Technical Areas: Background/Scope:
Consistent with the overall approach for establishing path agnostic communications using the commercial space internet described in the overarching Advanced Research Announcement (ARA) FA8650-17-S-9300, this Call seeks to establish the ability to communicate with military platforms via multiple commercial space internet (CSI) constellations in various orbital regimes using common user terminal hardware elements. An important aspect of using CSI capabilities effectively and affordably for defense purposes is the ability to switch between space internet providers as operational and business needs change. This includes using spacecraft constellations in different orbit regimes, such as low-, medium-, and geosynchronous earth orbits (LEO, MEO, GEO) to access favorable geometry and/or performance characteristics for particular situations. It also includes quickly and effectively switching among commercial space internet services in different frequency bands to access favorable spectrum and/or to failover between constellations when one becomes available. In some cases, it may be advantageous to access multiple constellations simultaneously and split traffic between them. Finally, in some cases it may be beneficial to utilize common hardware elements to communicate with both commercial space internet constellations as well as military communications systems in order to provide even greater flexibility in communications paths while minimizing deployment of

constellation-specific hardware. The Department of the Air Force (DAF) wishes to conduct experiments in vendor flexibility across multiple bands and orbits to