“Almost all the systems that we use for homeland defense rely on that part of the spectrum that's being considered to be either sold or shared,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of US Northern Command, said.
To help fight inflation, the Pentagon was given $1.05 billion to disperse to industry. Now, documents reviewed by Breaking Defense and interviews with key officials reveal how and why certain programs won out.
As NATO and European governments accelerate investment in space-based intelligence, decision advantage will depend on how quickly sovereign and commercial capabilities can be fused into a trusted operational picture.
Disputes over spectrum use by mega-constellations in low Earth orbit, such as SpaceX's Starlink, also carry heavy political baggage at the 2023 World Radio Conference that starts tomorrow in Dubai.
The award to Lockheed comes at the same time the service is launching its hardware refresh initiative dubbed the Foundry.
The month-long World Radiocommunications Conference in Dubai will decide whether to change how spectrum use is allocate among various users - including spectrum needed by DoD planes and ships operating abroad.
STRATCOM's Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations Center is focused primarily on repelling threats from Russia and China, but DoD also faces a potentially crippling spectrum grab by US commercial 5G wireless giants.
Watch experts discuss foreign influence risks, evolving DoD policy, and strategies for balancing security with scientific collaboration.
Lockheed is in talks with the Navy to potentially expand its presence at the Forge in the coming year.
The Forge, a Navy software factory, has lofty goals and bureaucracy to beat, but plans to bring its work to an operational destroyer this year.