{"id":27603,"date":"2020-06-26T13:43:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T13:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/26\/how-project-blackjack-is-turning-the-corner\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:34:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:34:30","slug":"how-project-blackjack-is-turning-the-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2020\/06\/26\/how-project-blackjack-is-turning-the-corner\/","title":{"rendered":"How Project Blackjack is turning the corner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later this year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is expected to launch a series of risk reduction payloads into orbit to help pave the way for an experimental program known as Project Blackjack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Blackjack, DARPA wants to demonstrate the military utility of a large constellation of small satellites operating in low earth orbit. These satellites will connect with each other on orbit over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/c2-comms\/2020\/01\/16\/the-pentagon-wants-help-for-its-satellites-to-talk-to-each-other\/\" target=_blank>optical intersatellite links<\/a>, forming a mesh network in space. That network will be able to deliver sensor data collected on orbit to terrestrial war fighters in near-real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while Blackjack won\u2019t transition to a program of record, Defense officials have made it clear that the technologies it will demonstrate will pave the way for a DoD-specific mesh network on orbit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/01\/21\/one-military-space-agencys-plan-for-1000-new-satellites-by-2026\/\" target=_blank>being built by the Space Development Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2020\/05\/26\/covid-oneweb-and-how-the-space-development-agency-has-coped\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DMT-AFA_Sept-2019.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">COVID, OneWeb and how the Space Development Agency has coped<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Space Development Agency Director Derek Tournear says the industrial base will be able to support the rapid launch cadence needed to build its proliferated constellation of hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DARPA has issued a flurry of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/04\/27\/lockheed-martin-to-integrate-project-blackjack-satellites\/\" target=_blank>contracts<\/a> in recent weeks as the agency prepares to launch risk reduction satellites later this year and then it\u2019s first Blackjack payloads in 2021. In May, Blackjack Project Manager Paul \u201cRusty\u201d Thomas spoke to C4ISRNET about the current state of the project, who the agency is partnering with for payloads, and how it feels to see this mesh network concept become a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>C4ISRNET: First, can you provide an update on where Project Blackjack is right now?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>THOMAS:<\/b> Blackjack, in summary, is turning the corner from our phase one exploration of what type of commercial technology we can use to leverage the entire military utility of P-LEO, hopefully disruptive approaches to constellations and network architectures, [and] space mesh networks of the future. And we\u2019ve recognized where some of the key risks are. We\u2019ve also recognized that we\u2019ve got a great opportunity to demonstrate proliferated LEO with a sub constellation in the 2021-2022 time frame. So the current position of Blackjack is tying up all the loose ends at the end of our phase one contract, lots of buses, lots of payloads, the vast majority [of which] did a great job for us and got a lot of great offers\u2014more options than I think will ever get funding or even time to chase. We\u2019re looking great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now the tough job is: okay, how do we give the best and most comprehensive demo that really nails down some of the risks that P-LEO has, which is substantial. We\u2019re going to have a high level of autonomy, but we don\u2019t have a huge amount of manpower on the ground. How do we get the space mesh network to work where we move broadband data with low latency globally [while] minimizing ground links? How do we actually put a lot of our [processing on orbit], and have the space sensing and the processing of that data all up in space?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we\u2019ve identified technology problems areas and now phase two is starting to ramp. I think we\u2019ll be able to make some announcements later this year about what we\u2019re actually going to fly in \u201921 for key demonstrations with that sub constellation of 10 to 20 satellites. And that\u2019s all looking very, very positive in my mind. Along the way, we\u2019ve learned, \u2018Hey, these might be key risks,\u2019 and we\u2019ve established a set of risk reduction, smaller missions, smaller satellites \u2014 we\u2019ve got cubesats all the way up to 100-150 kilogram spacecraft that can demonstrate some of the key pieces, whether it\u2019s the very powerful processor supercomputers in space, in orbit, that we want to put up to provide that type of processing capability, or whether it\u2019s the optical intersatellite links that will provide a space mesh network that will provide gigabits of connectivity between satellites. As we identify those, we\u2019ve actually been able to put together using commercial approaches the ability to bring new technology and get it integrated and into space in months or a year\u2019s time instead of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/05\/12\/darpa-set-to-launch-first-blackjack-satellite-later-this-year\/\" target=_blank>That\u2019s why you saw that press release<\/a>, where we talked about the Mandrake 1, the Mandrake 2, [&#8230;] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/06\/16\/these-payloads-will-pave-the-way-for-pit-boss\/\" target=_blank>the Sagittarius-A*<\/a> and the Wildcard. Those four programs are going to put at least about five satellites up and we\u2019re going to demonstrate starting in August with Mandrake 1 later this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later this year, we\u2019ll have the first one, the Mandrake 1 launch, and then Mandrake 2\u2014working that one with SDA. Very, very awesome partner working with us to get those intersatellite links and the optical pieces\u2019 risk pounded down, and then move into the Wildcard and Sagittarius-A* missions early next year. And if those all go well, we\u2019re looking like we\u2019ll send our first two full blown spacecraft up in the fall of \u201921 and be able to put a subconstellation up in \u201922. We\u2019ll do some pretty amazing things with that demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>C4ISRNET: Earlier you said Project Blackjack is really turning a corner right now. For us, it seems like it\u2019s ramped up very quickly over the last month or so.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>THOMAS:<\/b> It definitely has. I drive a Tesla to work and I always say it\u2019s like driving a rocket to your job. And that\u2019s what it\u2019s like, putting the pedal down on the Tesla where that infinite amount of torque of your electric motor starts to really accelerate you. That\u2019s exactly what it feels like to be at Blackjack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>C4ISRNET: My understanding was that the first flights were supposed to be in \u201921, or at least that was the earlier plan. What allowed you to push up the first launches to August\/September?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>THOMAS:<\/b> The risk reductions don\u2019t have all the capability that the Blackjack node is going to have. The Blackjack node is going to show how we can use these commoditized commercial approach buses to work for a wide variety of payloads. It\u2019s going to have optical intersatellite links, a very powerful processor, an AI-enabled capable supercomputer, and it\u2019s going to have a sensor that has high military utility. All those features have to be on before an actual Blackjack node can turn on, interface, connect to its next door neighbors, and start doing a mission with a constellation autonomy turned on, with all the reliability and availability. All the utilities are at the constellation level. An individual node is just one more piece that can come and go whether you have a liability issue or some problem, your resilience is at the fact that you have a large mesh network, kind of like we have internet on the ground\u2014we can lose individual nodes and it doesn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So Blackjack nodes that we talked about for late \u201921 have to have all those key elements on board. The reason we have these early launches is because we have all these key technologies and DARPA hard pieces that are coming together, we really want to show that we can demonstrate those elements in space earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mandrake 1 doesn\u2019t do all of those elements. It just looks at the supercomputer in space and chips we want to fly and show that they can operate in the environment of low Earth orbit. If that works then that means the computers we\u2019ll launch in fall of \u201921 have a very high probability of success, or a higher probability of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then same thing with the Mandrake 2. That\u2019s the one with SDA where we\u2019re showing the optical intersatellite links. There are plenty of wonderful optical intersatellite links technology-wise that are fairly large apertures and, you know, [cost millions of dollars]. For a proliferated low Earth orbit architecture you need to get that down by an order of magnitude. Size, weight, power and cost all need to get in a better box than what they are, and that\u2019s what DARPA is doing in advancing the technology, showing that we can fly these systems that will work in a P-LEO architecture. Mandrake 2 is focused just on that \u2014 the optical intersatellite links versus the software defined radio for Wildcard and then the data fusion, kind of big brain in space, that we\u2019re doing to Sagittarius-A*. So those almost look at individual pieces of the puzzle that add up to a Blackjack node. Sum them up and now they all work great and we have a great mission next year. If we have issues with any one of these, we can turn the dial, adjust our architecture and our hardware on the ground before we launch the first two and actually go up with a higher chance of mission success on these first two satellites because of all the individual risk reduction missions we\u2019re doing this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>C4ISRNET: We heard recently that <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/06\/06\/special-operations-command-is-diving-into-space\/\" target=_blank><b>Special Operations Forces Command (SOCOM) has been partnering with you on aspects of Blackjack<\/b><\/a><b>. Who are some of the other DoD partners you\u2019re working with on Blackjack?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>THOMAS:<\/b> As an active Navy Reserve intelligence officer, I deployed with Naval Special Warfare to the CENTCOM area, to Iraq in 2008. I\u2019m very familiar with the SOCOM mission set, very much interested in helping them get their job done in a tactically relevant way. Blackjack by definition, [takes] tactically relevant information and delivers [it] to tactical warfighters in seconds or minutes from when it hits the sensor, and SOCOM\u2019s mission is all about doing those type of tip of the spear missions where you can really help with the cost of the system overhead, whether it\u2019s comms or sensors. The wonderful set of potential approaches with SOCOM \u2014 I don\u2019t want to talk about anything specific there just because I do recognize that it\u2019s key to what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main thread is we started with a wonderful partnership with [the Air Force Research Laboratory] out in Albuquerque \u2014 and they basically got us off the ground with their deputy program manager that\u2019s on site currently with me here in DARPA HQ in Arlington. They\u2019ve been providing early support in multiple ways to get the program off the ground quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[U.S. Space Force\u2019s Space and Missile Systems Center] in LA stood up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2019\/09\/26\/a-pentagon-experiment-to-process-to-the-torrent-of-data-from-space\/\" target=_blank>a CASINO program office<\/a> that could actually stand as a transition path, and they\u2019ve been spectacularly supporting Blackjack, standing with me every day. I have a telecon with them to their senior folks once a month. I talk to their program manager multiple times per week. So we are in sync with how I am working development of P-LEO technologies and risks and what I\u2019m doing to be able to develop and what I will be able to transition into the CASINO path that SMC is managing. So that\u2019s that\u2019s my second big one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Third, SDA was of course stood up on using P-LEO and a lot of the architectural elements I\u2019m doing, you know? There\u2019s never talk about a straight transition path\u2014Blackjack can go many directions\u2014but I certainly am working with SDA on a regular basis to develop all the key technologies, include that Mandrake 2 which is a strong partnership with SDA specifically because they also recognize how important the optical intersatellite links and the broadband low latency, no RF spectrum issues type of communication satellites of the future for P-LEO is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also am working with the Army. The two payloads that they\u2019re actually working on [will specifically] deliver tactical war fighter information \u2014 ISR data \u2014 directly to the war fighter. And I\u2019m briefing them on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also talk to MDA on a regular basis as we go back and forth on the various Missile Defense Agency mission sets and areas I could help reduce risk with. So all of those folks are in regular contact with me, I&#8217;ll say almost daily, as we work through how Blackjack can help define a new architecture, be disruptive and show how we can augment systems that are out there, maybe do things differently with a little extra resilience, or significantly more resilience and then also work toward what would be a good demo for the various services and agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>C4ISRNET: Last year we saw the SDA stood up, more and more verbal buy-in to P-LEO for various missions, and the declaration that an on orbit mesh network <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/05\/06\/how-low-earth-orbit-satellites-will-enable-jadc2\/\" target=_blank><b>will play a key role in Joint All-Domain Command and Control<\/b><\/a><b>. Are you surprised at how quickly DoD has embraced this P-LEO model before you even have had to completely demonstrate it?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>THOMAS:<\/b> It\u2019s always surprising when things move faster than you expect of course, but that\u2019s a good thing. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do here. DARPA\u2019s job is of course not to build an operational system. Our job is demonstrate key risks and pound that out like I said earlier, so that operational folks can have some confidence and proof of existence that these things are going to work. And so I am very encouraged by this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m very surprised. I have been a believer in proliferated LEO since I started at Motorola in \u201993 on Project Iridium, the Iridium Mark I. And I saw what that could do technologically. And you know, Motorola had to go through bankruptcy and had some problems with Iridium at first, but it was a technological achievement that really changed my thinking in a big way. We saw how we could build a standard satellite and mount it without any changes to a Delta II, a Proton Russian rocket \u2014 back then we could even launch on Chinese rockets, and we did. All the standard satellites could go on any one of those folks. Production line approaches \u2014 there was all these things you could use when you go to a smaller satellite than what we do with these big, large, exquisite satellites and put them on a production line approach. And so I\u2019ve been a believer in that since the early 90s. I\u2019ve cut my teeth as a Motorola engineer, both when I was working with with the Sunnyvale folks to build the bus \u2014 Lockheed built the bus for Iridium \u2014 and then I worked on the launch team to get that launch cadence up to put up 80 plus satellites in one year from three different continents. And it all worked. So I saw that happen. I also saw the failures that happened with the financial piece. But they came through that and they\u2019ve been in service ever since it got there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was at Teledesic in the early 00s, and that\u2019s where Bill Gates, Craig McCaw we\u2019re very interested in trying to build this internet of sky approach, and a few technical issues and the Dot-com crash stopped that, but still, the power of it was absolutely there. Anybody who worked there knew that this was an architecture that had a lot of power. So I think what\u2019s happened the last few years [is], we\u2019ve continued to miniaturize, we\u2019ve continued to find ways to bring commercial approaches and go fast approaches to the space domain, and now DoD is taking a lot of that up. I think you\u2019ve got to give some credit to SpaceX, who has shown how you can do different approaches using commercial approaches in the launch area now with the success of getting the Starlink satellites up. Those are all coming to fruition now. I think the architecture has shown its promise for many years and the technology is getting to the point we can really leverage it. So I think it\u2019s all those years of meshing, and you\u2019re starting to see now DoD is engaging on that front also and taking advantage of all that\u2019s come before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I guess I\u2019m not surprised. I\u2019m also surprised it didn\u2019t happen five years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DARPA&#8217;s Project Blackjack will demonstrate how an on orbit mesh network can help the military. In an interview with C4ISRNET, Project Manager Paul \u201cRusty\u201d Thomas explains the path forward for the experimental constellation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":37,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"10":{"categories":["space","military-space-report","newsletters","daily-news-roundup"],"primary_category":"space"}}},"categories":[7,106,29,32,37],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3143],"class_list":["post-27603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battlefield-tech","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"26A3UGVKRVF67MNC4TQU25EAHI","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/06\/26\/how-project-blackjack-is-turning-the-corner\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Project Blackjack is turning the corner - C4ISRNet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"DARPA&#039;s Project Blackjack will demonstrate how an on orbit mesh network can help the military. In an interview with C4ISRNET, Project Manager Paul \u201cRusty\u201d Thomas explains the path forward for the experimental constellation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Project Blackjack is turning the corner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DARPA&#039;s Project Blackjack will demonstrate how an on orbit mesh network can help the military. 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