US Defense Innovation Unit (Defense Innovation Unit / GOD) 15 July 2026 officially announced a competition for commercial companies to develop technologies for transmitting electricity from space using a directed beam (Space Power Beaming / SPB).
The main goal of the initiative – create a flexible infrastructure, which will be able to wirelessly supply power to both satellites in orbit, as well as military bases or drones on Earth. Applications from US and international companies are accepted until 22 July 2026 year.
The Pentagon divided the request into four specific technical tasks:
Space - Space: Ready-made commercial solutions for transmitting energy to receiving satellites, are located at a distance of 1200 km.
Space - Earth: Systems for directing an energy beam at ground mobile points or remote objects.
Reception modules: Commercial receivers, able to effectively capture the beam and convert it back into electricity.
New generation components: Technologies for size reduction, weight and cost (SWaP) transmission equipment.
DIU is focused on ultra-fast adoption of commercial technologies, bypassing the lengthy bureaucratic procurement procedure:
For 12 months: Winning companies must demonstrate working system prototypes in laboratory conditions.
For 24 months: Conducting the first full-scale tests directly in low Earth orbit (LEO).
To 2030 financial year: Deployment of a full-fledged operational military-space energy network, which will work according to the principle “energy as a service” (Power-as-a-Service).
Currently, satellites are limited by the size of their own solar panels and the capacity of their batteries. Possibility “recharge” the apparatus directly in orbit will allow more powerful radars to be installed on them, supercomputers for artificial intelligence (Edge Computing) and maneuvering systems. On Earth, this would solve the problem of getting fuel for generators to the front lines in isolated regions.
Source: https://spacenews.com