CACI has signed a 5-year cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Technical Center to develop advanced payload technologies, space sensor applications and resilient Positioning, Navigation & Timing.
“These payloads feature mission-proven, ground-based technologies that are tailored for the unique challenges of the contested space domain,” said CACI President of National Security and Innovative Solutions Todd Probert.
“They enable increased resiliency and security through low size, weight, and power (SWaP) software-defined applications. We look forward to working closely with the Army on this critical program to bolster our nation’s dominance in space.”
CACI previously announced a 2023 satellite launch to test a multimission small satellite payload, which includes two software-defined technology applications. These enable precise, resilient PNT and tactical signals intelligence capabilities in low Earth orbit.
CACI’s PNT and TacISR payloads show how software-defined radio-based modules can be configured for multiple missions. The USASMDC-TC is interested in the program to evaluate these technologies for military use.
The cooperative R&D agreement includes technologies for laser communications, laser sensing, artificial intelligence and secure communication technologies. The PNT payload application will demonstrate GPS-independent earth-space time synchronization that exceeds current performance by 100 times, according to CACI.