ThinKom announced it has been selected by SpaceWERX for a Direct-to-Phase II (D2P2) SBIR contract in the amount of $1.9 million to provide a containerized, transportable phased array ground entry point (GEP) to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF).
The Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force and a unique division within AFWERX, have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution.
The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018, which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and ThinKom was selected to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defence of the United States of America.
"In the face of increasingly complex and contested environments, a resilient and adaptable MILSATCOM ground infrastructure is a game changer," explained Bill Milroy, CTO and co-founder at ThinKom. "Through the use of distributed, reconfigurable, and software-defined phased arrays in a Conex shipping container, our warfighters will have reliable and secure satellite connectivity, which is essential for covert operations, forward deployments, mobile broadband, and ground stations. Additionally, the automated failover capabilities and mission continuity offer support in space domain awareness, SIGINT, missile warning, and other secure communications."
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