{"id":352,"date":"2024-11-08T18:57:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T18:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=352"},"modified":"2024-11-08T18:57:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T18:57:29","slug":"australia-abandons-military-satellite-project-with-lockheed-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"Australia Abandons Military Satellite Project With Lockheed Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian Department of Defence has\u00a0ceased<\/a>\u00a0its procurement of a single-orbit Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)-based satellite communications system from Lockheed Martin Australia.<\/p>\n

A multi-orbit satellite solution will instead be prioritized, as it can better meet strategic priorities that enhance security and resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision allows Defence to prioritise emerging needs, mitigate capability gaps and continue to support our transition to an integrated, focused force,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Change of Direction<\/h2>\n

In a television\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0ABC News<\/i>, Defence Minister\u00a0Richard Marles<\/b>\u00a0described the move as \u201ca change of direction in terms of how we deliver the capability for our communications network in Defence,\u201d to ensure the country\u2019s capabilities in meeting future threats and opportunities.<\/p>\n

He mentioned seeing technologies \u201cwhich can literally shoot satellites out of the sky\u201d and those \u201cwhere you have thousands of micro satellites in a much more distributed way providing the same effect,\u201d\u00a0citing Starlink above Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need to make sure that we\u2019re doing as we move forward is delivering a communications capability which is more distributed, which is therefore more resilient, and we believe we can do that in this way faster and more cost effective,\u201d Marles added.<\/p>\n

However, Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst\u00a0Malcolm Davis<\/b>\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that while a multi-orbit capability is ideal, he\u2019s \u201cnot convinced that cancelling the existing JP9102 approach instead of simply adding LEO and MEO components is the right way to do it,\u201d referring to Low Earth Orbit and Medium Earth Orbit satellite architectures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statement offers no words on when a new decision will be made on how best to proceed, timelines, cost, or the architecture of the proposed \u2018multi-orbit\u2019 capability,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Canberra invited companies to tender for the supply of a Department of Defence-owned and operated GEO-satellite communications system.<\/p>\n

In 2023,\u00a0Lockheed Martin was selected to deliver Australia\u2019s first sovereign military communications satellite\u00a0and multiple ground stations as part of the JP9102 program.<\/p>\n

Despite this recent cancellation, Canberra said \u201cLockheed Martin Australia continues to be a highly valued industry partner, supporting Defence\u2019s requirements for contemporary and future capability demands.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian Department of Defence has\u00a0ceased\u00a0its procurement of a single-orbit Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)-based satellite communications system from Lockheed Martin Australia. A multi-orbit satellite solution will instead be prioritized, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AUSTRALIA.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}