SFL Missions Awarded Contract to Develop Three New HawkEye 360 Satellite Clusters for Radio Frequency Detection

The contract includes Cluster 14, which is similar to those recently launched by HawkEye 360, and Clusters 15 and 16, which SFL Missions is modifying to incorporate advanced capabilities.

Under the Flex Production program, SFL Missions provides spacecraft bus units and subsystems based on its space-proven 30-kg DEFIANT platform that SFL has designed in Toronto specifically for HawkEye 360, which are then shipped to HawkEye 360’s Herndon, Va. facility for full assembly, integration, and testing.

Based in Herndon, Va., HawkEye 360 is the global leader in signals intelligence and the first to use formation-flying microsatellites for maritime and terrestrial RF signal detection. This data is analyzed for many sectors, including maritime situational awareness, emergency response, national security, and spectrum mapping. Common defense applications include Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) and Electronic Intelligence (ELINT).

SFL Missions is supplying upgraded bus-level components that support HawkEye 360’s payload and enable new capabilities such as concurrent in-theater data collection and downlinking. This means the HawkEye 360 satellites will download the acquired RF signal data in real time to a ground station. To accomplish this, SFL Missions is upgrading the antenna and radio systems on each spacecraft to selectively steer the beam towards the target ground station.