Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Boeing’s autonomous anti-jam tech suppresses jamming in real-time

Boeing engineers recently tested the new, autonomous technology for the U.S. Space Force to prevent jamming attempts on U.S. Department of Defense satellite communications (SATCOM).

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The new system was tested at White Sands, New Mexico, showing how the technology can autonomously detect and counter-jamming efforts at the source in real time and provide secure communication in contested environments. During the demonstration, a series of simulated exercises using the U.S. Space Force’s Protected Tactical SATCOM Prototype (PTS-P).

PTS-P aims to provide the U.S. Military with space-based processing of the Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW), the military‘s jam-resistant waveform. The system uses software-defined beam-shaping to geolocate and actively suppress jamming in real time, with thousands of data points gathered every second.

“Maintaining communication with our deployed forces during hostility gives us a tactical edge on the battlefield,” said Justin Bruner, PTS-P Program Manager at the U.S. Space Force. “Our adversaries are always attempting to deny our ability to communicate. On-board, autonomous, real-time nulling of jammers greatly enhance our resiliency, ensuring the United States and our allies can provide our warfighters with secure, reliable communications in a contested environment. Boeing has made significant strides in the development and execution of a nulling algorithm with flight-like firmware, demonstrating agile anti-jam capability. PTS-P and all of our Protected Anti-Jam Tactical SATCOM (PATS) programs are critical to this effort.”

During the series of simulated exercises, an adversary attempted to block a user’s communication, including situations with numerous simultaneous jamming attempts. In every simulation, the Boeing-built prototype autonomously mitigated highly-dynamic jamming attempts and preserved connectivity, including situations where the user was in close proximity to the interference source.

The additional PTS-P hardware and software demonstrations are planned in the coming months, with host vehicle integration set to begin in early 2023. The on-orbit demonstration is slated for 2024.

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“The Space Force understands these rapid prototyping programs are needed to maintain technical and space superiority,” said Troy Dawson, vice president of Government Satellite Solutions at Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “We are innovating to meet the needs of the evolving threat. This requires us to try things that we’ve never tried before, moving quickly, failing quickly, and ultimately fielding first-of-its-kind technology that is ready for the rigors of the battlefield. Our efforts on PTS-P are setting the pace and blazing a trail that I anticipate many more national security programs will follow.”

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Blurbs

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