Derek Tournear, director at the Department of Defense’s Space Development Agency, said he is interested to address GPS-denied environments via the use of low-Earth orbit satellites, C4ISRnet reported Friday.
He said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s conference in October that his agency plans to launch hundreds of LEO satellites that would provide positioning and timing data for navigation.
“If you have open communication down to any system and you can see multiple satellites, that gives you another means to use your existing comms system to get navigation independent of any other user equipment,” the SDA director noted.
The Pentagon established SDA to pursue the rapid development of LEO satellite technologies that would support a range of military operations.
Tournear served as SDA’s acting director from July up to his appointment as the agency’s full-time leader in October.
