In anticipation of an upcoming competition, Raytheon unveiled its prototype of the network architecture for the Air Force‘s planned Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT), the next-generation constellation of satellites that will be capable of transmitting data more quickly and efficiently than current satellites.

Trip Carter, the head of military satellite communications (Milsatcom) advanced programs for Raytheon’s Space Systems Group in Aurora, Colo., told reporters in a briefing Tuesday that his industry team would be demonstrating a mock-up of the TSAT Military Operations System, or TMOS, to various U.S. defense officials, including representatives of the National Security Agency, the Defense Information Systems Agency and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

According to Carter, the Raytheon-led team invested its own dollars in a TMOS demonstration model to provide “risk burndown” before the new satellite system is deployed.

“We also have about 600 requirements on the TMOS program currently, and this system, through real hardware in the loop [and] through real software, has actually addressed about 200 of those requirements,” he said.

In December, Raytheon announced the formation of a team to pursue the $2 billion TMOS program, the ground segment for TSAT. The team includes Boeing‘s Integrated Defense Systems unit, General Dynamics C4 Systems and AT&T Government Solutions.

The Raytheon team is not the only one vying for the contract. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are also reportedly preparing bids for the program. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Milsatcom joint program office at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., will administer the program. A formal request for proposals is scheduled to come out May 20, with proposals due sometime in July. According to Carter, the TMOS award is expected in late October.

As part of its acquisition strategy, the Air Force separated the development of the TMOS architecture from the program to develop and deploy the satellites. However, budget cuts have pushed back the first satellite launch to 2013, and congressional authorizers last year cited specific concerns about the maturity of TSAT technology.

Carter did not address specific threats to the TSAT budget, but suggested that TMOS would be a valuable way to boost interoperability for existing systems.

“We know that the TMOS system early on can provide some of this utility for the warfighter before some of those space assets are put on orbit,” Carter told Defense Daily, sister publication to Satellite News. “These networks that coexist with each other, if left to their own devices, they will mature as relatively stovepiped systems. So our message again is proactive interoperability: Let’s get out there. Let’s achieve interoperability. Let’s get all of these networks tied into the GIG [global information grid] via the TMOS architecture and have an interoperable system by the time the TSAT space system is deployed.”

The main purpose of TMOS is allocation of bandwidth, establishing priority and precedence for the use of the satellite communication system.

“We have to be able to dynamically reallocate bandwidth to certain places and not have to wait days, weeks or even months for that reallocation to happen,” Carter said.

–Nathan Hodge