WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Raytheon Technologies (RTX) a $51.7 million contract to develop satellite communications antennas for military aircraft, the Department of Defense announced Aug. 29.

The three-year contract falls under the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program, which aims to create advanced satcom networks leveraging commercial space internet constellations like Starlink, OneWeb, SES’s O3b and others.

Under the contract, Raytheon will develop multi-band, high-throughput  satellite communications antennas that can be integrated onto various military aircraft.

The DEUCSI program is part of a broader initiative to enhance the U.S. military’s ability to share information seamlessly across land, sea, and air forces. 

Raytheon and other defense contractors, including L3Harris Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems, are developing antennas and supporting technologies to give military users access to commercial internet services in low, medium, and geostationary orbits using a common set of user terminal hardware.

Sandra Erwin writes about military space programs, policy, technology and the industry that supports this sector. She has covered the military, the Pentagon, Congress and the defense industry for nearly two decades as editor of NDIA’s National Defense...