On-board, or "edge," processing is key to SDA's plans to develop a satellite network that can gather data from multiple sensors on the ground, at sea and in space to provide operators with precise, near-real-time targeting information.
Loft's two satellites are carrying payloads for a Space Development Agency demo, the UAE Space Agency and European commercial satcom firm Eutelsat, among others.
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
Two of the experiments, each involving two satellites, are focused on laser links: one between satellites themselves; the other from satellites to a MQ-9 Reaper drone on the ground.
The company's software-defined Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technology will offer military users an agile new signal from low Earth orbit (LEO) that is not dependent on existing satellite navigation systems," said Nicholas Paraskevopoulos, Northrop Grumman's chief technology officer.