Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) cloud computing business and Project Kuiper, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and SpiderOak Mission Systems have received contracts for the second phase of a Defense Innovation Unit project that seeks to demonstrate a hybrid architecture that would connect ground communications systems to satellite networks.
The Hybrid Space Architecture project “will pursue the goals of an agile and resilient communications architecture that will be able to move data through commercial, military and allied assets while integrating multi-domain cloud based storage and analytics,” Rogan Shimmin, DIU program manager for HSA, said in a statement published Wednesday.
Under phase two, Amazon Web Services, Kuiper, SpiderOak and Microsoft Azure Space will work to broaden the operational network to link terrestrial internet and cloud services to constellations of commercial communications satellites using blockchain ledgers to ensure data assurance and user authentication.
DIU is working with the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory on the HSA program.
In July, the unit awarded other transaction contracts to Anduril Industries, Aalyria, Atlas and Enveil to work on the project’s initial phase.
