APOGEE STAFF

he U.S. Department of Defense is working with commercial partners to identify sources of radio frequency (RF) jamming and other threats that interfere with global positioning system (GPS) signals.

Electronic devices that disrupt GPS signals are proliferating worldwide, prompting concern within the Defense Department and industries dependent on GPS. Pinpointing the precise location and sources of the interference has long been a challenge.

To find a solution, the U.S. Space Force is working with commercial partners Slingshot Aerospace and HawkEye 360, which use satellites to track ships, vehicles and other devices that emit RF signals.

Under an agreement announced in 2023, HawkEye 360 will supply data from its radio-frequency mapping satellites to Slingshot Aerospace to help create a threat-detection system for use by the Space Force, SpaceNews said.

“This partnership allows us to significantly improve our ability to capture, process, and characterize the RF signal environment into relevant and timely insights for U.S. government space operators,” said Alonso Segura, the company’s senior director of government programs.

HawkEye 360’s constellation detects, characterizes and locates RF signals from electronic emitters used in communications and navigation. Radio frequency data collected by satellites can help pinpoint interference hotspots that may disrupt the Global Navigation Satellite System or other satellite constellations that provide position, navigation and timing data.

The company’s satellites, which include software-defined radios, fly in clusters of three: one in front, another behind and a third that bounces back and forth, SpaceNews said. 

Under a $2 million contract with the U.S. Space Force, Slingshot Aerospace is developing an analytics tool that uses location data from commercial satellites in low Earth orbit to identify potential sources of electronic interference on the ground.

The company is developing a prototype to collect data from small satellites in low Earth orbit. Slingshot’s cloud platform would analyze data from the satellites to locate and mitigate RF and GPS interference sources.

The contract with Slingshot Aerospace is funded by the Space Systems Command’s CASINO program, which was created to identify ways the military can integrate new space technologies in the commercial sector. CASINO stands for commercially augmented space internetworked operations.

“GPS is heavily integrated in the day-to-day operations of our global landscape, but one signal interference by an adversary can disrupt many functions of an economy and military,” Alex Fox, HawkEye 360’s chief growth officer, said in a news release.

Share.
Leave A Reply