Phil Carrai: Kratos Eyes ‘Revolution’ in Ground Segment to Back P-LEO Satellite Constellations

Kratos Defense and Security Solutions is working on new ground infrastructure that could be used to support proliferated low-Earth orbit constellations of small satellites, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

“We think that p-LEO is a big deal. And there’s got to be a revolution that has to hit the ground segment,” said Phil Carrai, president of space, training and cyber division at Kratos. “We think this is kind of our play for the next many years. … We’ve been making some substantial investments in that, in the sense of taking what was analog and stovepiped and moving it into a digital, dynamic, cloud infrastructure.”

Integrating stovepiped and incompatible networks poses a challenge and Carrai said the company believes a substantial change needs to occur from the ground perspective.

He said an integrated satellite communications infrastructure requires the ability to integrate satellite-based imagery into a network and “a roaming modem or a roaming terminal.”

“If you don’t have that capability, you’re not going to be resilient, it’s going to cost a lot of money, and you’re going to create a huge exposure because everybody’s going to know what antennas are used for what purpose,” Carrai added.