It is dark, and it’s raining. Hard. But they know the life raft is close, and they are within minutes of saving lives. It is essential that data, imagery, and secure voice communications are reliably and securely delivered directly into the cockpit or onto the bridge for a successful outcome. It is for situations just like this that we are proud to have created SD Government.
We know how much our government and military customers rely on our resilient, dependable, secure connectivity across all mission sets, whether it’s a combat search-and-rescue mission for a downed pilot, segregated broadband for a senior government leadership aircraft, or downloading intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data in real-time.
In May 2022, we unified our government divisions COMSAT and SD Communications under a single brand, SD Government. The intent was to streamline customer access to the entire SD ecosystem of services, for an even stronger connectivity and support experience. A year later, the combined team continues to excel at supporting our U.S. government, military, and NATO customers, as a key facilitator for their demanding global connectivity requirements.
We’ve also achieved significant milestones.
We confirmed a five-year extension of our existing Multiple Service Award (MSA) contract with the United States General Services Administration (GSA), which was initiated in 2021. Our team successfully participated in Operation Arctic Lynx and Operation Pacific Waves, demonstrating the efficacy and latest equipment developments of SD Government’s Iridium Connected® services. This highlighted the strength of our relationship with Iridium and showcased that we can deliver unbroken services in remote, harsh, and dynamic environments.
Alongside the critical connectivity we bring, we are evolving our existing technology to better support our government customers. The SD Pro® operating system meets the diverse, demanding needs of business aviation, and we are evolving the platform to adapt to the specific requirements of government and military users by synchronizing mission communications, improving efficiencies and enhancing operations to heighten situational awareness. Our software and hardware portfolios are yielding operational benefits to the warfighter and government agencies at home and globally.
The SD Pro Joint Command, Control and Communications (C3) Portal has already received its Phase I award under the AFWERX SBIR/STTR (Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer) program, and we’ve recently submitted an Air Force MOU, including a ‘wish list’ of functionality, for the Phase II award.
Our small form factor low-SWaP (size, weight, and power) ESA (Electronically Steered Antenna), which will connect with the OneWeb LEO constellation, also achieved a Phase I SBIR award in 2022. It has completed lab RF testing, and we’ve finished over-the-air (OTA) demonstrator design. We’re building a full-scale OTA demonstrator for network testing ahead of developing a test program with one of our evaluation customers, and submitting an AFWERX Phase II proposal this spring.
The SD Government mission is to bring our industry-leading customer support and innovative technology to government customers, including the fleet of U.S. government senior leadership aircraft. One year on, we are delivering on our promises of improving operational efficiencies, providing cohesive customer support and enabling optimization of the full gamut of SD end-to-end connectivity. We are committed to building on the industry leadership we’ve already demonstrated, and we are only just getting started….
