Back in June last year, the government resurrected a project to create a sovereign satellite capability which it had binned seven months earlier on grounds that what was proposed was expensive, insufficiently flexible and vulnerable to emerging threats.
That left the Australian Defence Force (ADF) stuck with satellite communications from a couple of commercial providers and the US military WGS network.
So now Joint Project JP9102 is back, with a fresh vision. That has a fair distance to go but major space and defence companies such as Northrop Grumman are interested.
In Australia last week for talks with Australian space officials was Troy Brashear, Northrop Grumman’s new Vice President International Space Systems, a 23-year veteran of the US Air Force space force.
“Where the ADF and Australia as a whole is going with 9102 is really important and we want to see how we can help out,” he told ADM.
“Northrop has a 50-years plus history of working military satellites with United States customers. We have over a three-decade history of working international programs.”
Version 1 of JP9102 attracted extensive interest across the global space industry, with Northrop ultimately losing out to Lockheed Martin. The original vision was for two or more communications satellites in geostationary orbit – highly capable, long lived and expensive, with a price tag around $7 billion.
However, China has demonstrated a new capability to perform satellite close approach operations out in GEO, which may be entirely legitimate resupply missions or a developing ability to take out adversary communications satellites.
Brashear endorsed the new ADF approach to satellite communications.
“The vision the ADF has is good one, where there is going to be a combination of geosynchronous and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites and maybe others. That sort of robust resilient combination is a good place to be,” he said.
“That threat from various actors in the region and around the globe has impacted what sort of capabilities and how that would be rolled out.
After resurrecting JP9102, Defence issued a Request for Information to potential providers, saying it had prioritised its need for a resilient, multi-orbit capability for the ADF.
“To meet this strategic objective, SPA9102 will enhance and evolve the existing Space, Ground and Control segments of its SATCOM architecture commensurate with threat, technological evolution, global military practices and strategic priorities,” it said.
Not a lot more is known about how Defence plans to proceed on SPA9102.
Much more could be disclosed in the new National Defence Strategy and accompanying Integrated Investment Program set for release around the second quarter.
Brashear said new satellite capabilities could not be delivered in a couple of months, and it was more like a couple of years.
But the market had changed and now speed of delivery was everything.
“We in industry and especially at Northrop understand how important bringing capabilities to operation is and so we have spent a lot of money and investment in capacity in our factories to bring satellites faster.”