Cailabs CEO Jean-Francois Morizur and DataPath President Nicole Robinson on Dec. 15. Photo: Cailabs

Cailabs is working to bring transportable optical ground stations to market through a new agreement with DataPath to integrate its optical instruments onto DataPath’s transportable ground stations.

Cailabs has signed an agreement valued up to $60.82 million with Datapath to integrate and deploy the first-unit produced Transportable Optical Ground Station (T-OGS) and the first lot of up to 12 production units. This includes the production line, spare parts and logistics chain, operations and maintenance, and field service support to both commercial and government end users. 

The companies held a signing ceremony Dec. 15 during the Department of Defense (DoD) Commercial Satcom Workshop in Arlington, Virginia. 

Cailabs, which recently raised $67 million, has demonstrated its Space Development Agency (SDA)-compatible optical ground station in a space-to-ground optical demo with a Kepler Communications satellite. T-OGS takes that optical ground capability and allows it to be rapidly deployed in difficult environments, Cailabs CEO Jean-Francois Morizur told Via Satellite. 

He explains the key benefits of optical communications is that it is much more difficult to detect, intercept, and jam than radio frequency (RF) communications. He sees strong demand for taking the company’s optical ground stations and turning it into a transportable product. 

“Europe is seeing an environment where denied radio is a reality. Things are jammed, things are detected — if you’re using radio, you can become a target,” Morizur said. “It’s not just Europe. There is an immediate need to find a solution to jamming and being non-detectable. Optical is part of that solution.” 

DataPath, a subsidiary of Gilat Satellite Networks, has deep experience in deploying Wideband Global Satcom (WGS)-certified hub systems. DataPath President Nicole Robinson sees optical ground stations as adding to the level of resiliency and redundancy the company’s DoD customers are asking for. 

“We have existing DataPath customers who are very interested in looking at a hybrid system. You have got the T-OGS system with the optical capability, and alongside it you have an RF terminal that’s capable of doing backhaul,” Robinson said. “Those are the kind of themes that we’re hearing from our DoD end users. That’s the ultimate in resiliency and redundancy — the combination.”

She mentioned potential use cases like downlinking Earth Observation data into a conflict environment, downlinking data from defense mesh networks like the SDA, with transportability and the ability to relocate downlink. 

Robinson expects the company will have the materials to start integration in the early part of the second quarter in 2026, with testing as early as August/September of 2026.