York Space Systems announces the first-ever demonstration of Link 16 technology from space on its Tranche 0 (T0) satellites in November 2023. Photo: York Space Systems.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) said on Aug. 7 that an agency Tranche 0 satellite with Link 16 connected recently with an aircraft carrier.

“We’ve achieved another major testing milestone for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture by successfully demonstrating the first-ever Link 16 network entry from Tranche 0 satellites in Low-Earth Orbit [LEO] to a U.S. Navy ship operating in international waters,” the agency said. “SDA’s Warfighter Integration Cell conducted a series of successful Link 16 tests over a two-day period with a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier operating in international waters.”

SDA cited operational security in not identifying the aircraft carrier.

The test came 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.

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