EXCLUSIVE: Freeman out as head of Amazon Leo Government
Ricky Freeman joined the company in 2023 as part of an increased focus in the defense market.
Ricky Freeman joined the company in 2023 as part of an increased focus in the defense market.
There are a lot of hopes within DoD and the Space Force for Project Kuiper's success, with officials seeing the constellation as offering diversity beyond Starlink in the supplier base for so-called proliferated LEO services.
Space industry analyst Todd Harrison said the $3.1 billion purchase is latest in a "shakeup" in the satellite communications landscape following the proliferation of LEO birds.
The US and its allies managed to block a move by China to open up the 6 GHz band Beijing uses for 5G mobile wireless communications to global use — a move that would have empowered Chinese telecom firms such as Huawei.
Long-range, high-speed optical communications will be critical for the service's plans for a "hybrid architecture" that would see networks of old and new military satellites, as well as commercial and allied networks, all communicating seamlessly to shift vast quantities of data around the world in near real-time.
Amazon recently launched the first two prototypes for its Project Kuiper; OneWeb now has all 634 satellites it needs to provide global internet access.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
"I think everyone agrees that if there's a reasonable cost-based argument that paying for use does make sense," industry analyst Tim Farrar said. But "I think Elon has made that more difficult rather than less difficult because you don't normally negotiate your weapons contracts on Twitter."
"Undersea cable infrastructure is ripe for sabotage," said Karen Jones, one of the authors of the study.