
To address warfighter communications challenges, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Space Development Agency is looking to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to proliferate resilient next-generation capabilities for warfighter communications. Satellite constellations in LEO promise to revolutionize warfighter communications for the U.S. and its allies, and technological advancements in RF antenna technology are key to making it possible. Learn more from Redwire’s Director of RF Products, Ben Wilmhoff.
What is your role at Redwire?
I am the Director of the RF Products Portfolio in the Longmont, CO location. Redwire is the leading custom RF solutions provider and manufacturer for the SDA Transport Layer ecosystem. I’m proud to be part of the team that is delivering these products.
What are the primary communication challenges that military operations face today, and how can space-based communications address these issues?
The role that the SDA’s Transport Layer fills is to close the ‘kill chain.’ The role of communications networks for the military is to facilitate and expedite decision making in a hostile environment. The Transport Layer fills a gap between ‘sensor’ and ‘shooter.’ For example, the Link-16 network connects ground soldiers to theater assets such as ground mobile platforms and fighter jets. However, there is a limited footprint over which these networks can operate because they are line-of-sight links. The Transport Layer dramatically expands the size of the footprint by providing a beyond-line-of-sight capability.
How has the advancement in space-based communication technologies impacted the speed and accuracy of decision-making in military operations today?
By providing beyond line-of-sight coverage, the path that information must travel between a ‘sensor’ and a ‘shooter’ is significantly shortened. This closer range has profound impacts on signal latency and signal path loss. Information that reaches a GEO satellite is 1,000 times weaker than information that reaches a LEO satellite. This means that we can use particular kinds of networks that are unavailable to GEO or use networks in LEO without the need for large reflectors. While certain aspects of the link are easier from LEO, like lower path loss, other aspects present new challenges, such as a larger angular coverage area. Redwire has been developing custom antennas that both exploit the lower path loss from LEO while also meet the challenge of larger angular field of view required since the days of Tranche 0.
In what ways do space-based communication systems offer resilience against cyber threats or signal interference, especially in contested or denied environments?
Interference is certainly a problem. We see various space procurement agencies offering new positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies from LEO to overcome traditional jamming of GPS. Resilience to jamming can be built into a communications network itself, for example, like Link-16 using frequency hopping. It can also be built into the actual antenna by using beam-forming and null-forming. Combining these two techniques is a very powerful quiver of tools to combat jamming, but it also makes communications systems more complex. In the early days of Link-16 from space, a system integrator could choose a particular radio and a particular antenna and bolt them together using a short cable. With these new beamforming and advanced waveform techniques, the radio and its active electronics become integrated into an antenna array. This tight integration delivers a more powerful capability but breaks the old model of a modular antenna and radio and requires coordinated development between the radio/waveform supplier and the antenna supplier.
Have there been any significant milestones in this area?
The most obvious was the very first Link-16 message ever sent from space, which came from a York bus and a Redwire antenna. This was an antenna developed for the Tranche 0 program. We are very proud to have been a part of that mission. Tranche 1 satellites are set to launch imminently for full operational capability. Once that happens, the demo status of Tranche 0 will be superseded by the operational status of the full 126-satellite Tranche 1 constellation.
Looking forward, what innovations in antenna technology do you see as most crucial for the future effectiveness of the U.S. Department of Defense?
Tighter integration between the antennas and the radios will result in dramatically increased capability, including multiple simultaneous beams and the ability to ‘blank out’ a jammer. Redwire is actively working innovative antenna capabilities for future Tranches to support War Fighter needs.
Learn more about the evolution of space-based warfighter communications, the latest Link 16 antenna developments, and the importance of a robust U.S. supply chain in the Mission Report: Space-Based Warfighter Communications – The Key to Modernizing Military Operations by Col. (Ret.) Dean Bellamy, Executive Vice President, National Security Space, Redwire Space.
Ben Wilmhoff is the Product Director for RF Products at Redwire Space. Ben is the Principal Investigator for all SDA antenna programs at Redwire. Ben guides an antenna development and manufacturing team which consists of RF engineers, mechanical engineers, project engineers, systems engineers, program managers, technicians, quality engineers and manufacturing engineers. Prior to his position at Redwire, Ben was the founder of BluFlux, LLC, an RF antenna and wireless design engineering services firm. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton, and a M.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University.