The Space Development Agency (SDA) has successfully tested a new Tranche 0 satellite to transmit Link 16 data from space, the agency confirmed to Defense Daily. The test was conducted in international waters, as SDA has lacked Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for more than a year to broadcast Link 16 from space into U.S. airspace. While the agency did not identify the aircraft carrier involved in the test, it cited operational security concerns as the reason for not disclosing the carrier's identity.
Fielded since the 1970s, Link 16 is a tactical datalink communication system used by the U.S., NATO, and coalition forces to transmit and exchange real-time situational awareness data. Space-based Link 16 is to allow beyond line-of-sight communications. Link 16 is part of the DoD Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) effort, and SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture is the space linchpin of CJADC2.
Last November, SDA said that it had debuted the provision of Link 16 data from space with three Tranche 0 Transport Layer York Space Systems satellites that demonstrated network entry through space to ground connection from LEO to a series of receivers using terrestrial radios. Those tests involved passive and active network entry, synchronization, and transmission of multiple tactical messages from satellites using L-band radios aboard the three Tranche 0 Transport Layer satellites to a ground test site in a Five Eyes nation, SDA said.
Because of the lack of FAA approval to broadcast Link 16 from space into U.S. airspace, SDA sought and received a waiver last year from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to transmit to another nation in the Five Eyes alliance. This story was first published by Defense Daily.