Over decades of investment and research, CACI has built up deep expertise and capabilities in a technology field that has become critical to the future of national security: free space optical (FSO) communications. Pioneering this high-performance technology is a team of solutions physicists, material scientists, engineers, and other dedicated staff that have worked on space-based FSO national security applications for the U.S. government for more than two decades. It’s a level of expertise and experience that has helped CACI become an industry leader when it comes to providing secure, reliable, and high throughput communications across defense, intelligence, and other national security missions.
What is photonics?
Using light instead of radio frequency (RF), photonics-based communications can link space assets such as satellites and NASA deep space probes more securely, and with a greater data transfer capacity. Using lasers rather than RF allows customers to more precisely “target” the receiver. This makes communications across vast distances of space more efficient and cost-effective than RF. Optical technology such as that produced by CACI also enables the transmission of larger volumes of data from one platform to another more swiftly, sending data many times faster than RF systems while meeting the extreme low-size, weight, and power requirements associated with space-based missions. Due to surging demand and market growth surrounding these laser-based communications, our photonics solutions team is working hard to deliver the next generation of optical capabilities for land, air, and space missions.
By investing in its experts and by expanding its development and manufacturing capacity, CACI has fostered the growth of remote optical sensing and optical processing and has made advancements in FSO technology that have resulted in increased communication efficiency, range, and bandwidth for space platforms. Technologies like high-power optical amplifiers, laser transmitting and receiving hardware, chip-scale photonics devices, and other innovations provide significant advantages for our national security customers and help solve some of the toughest problems facing communication, sensing, signals intelligence (SIGINT), and radar applications.
Leading in photonics innovation
FSO technologies will play an important role in all-domain communications, satellite support, and airborne and land-based optical communication capabilities, and it is why we continue to make strategic investments and acquisitions in this technology field. In December 2021, CACI acquired the California-based firm SA Photonics to further enhance its portfolio for optical space communications and high-end crewed flight programs. This added a host of low-earth orbit (LEO) capabilities to our range of technologies that complement our proven geostationary orbit (GEO) solutions.
Today, CACI is a leading U.S.-based manufacturer of national security photonics and optical technologies, with three major facilities in California, New Jersey, and Florida — where our newest 36,000-square-foot manufacturing and testing facility opened in Orlando in June 2022. The addition of team members from CACI’s acquisition of SA Photonics in 2021 and the new Orlando facility have allowed us in recent years to grow our collective experience in mechanical and optical design, control systems, and testing, and has given us the manufacturing footprint to accelerate vital new work in FSO communications amplifiers, modems, and terminals.
Our team continues making advances in power levels and spectrum regimes for remote optical sensor technology such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems — where pulsed laser light measures range and makes digital representations of surfaces. LiDAR is a sought-after capability for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks like long-range object identification and wide-area surveillance. CACI is now transitioning this capability from one-of-a-kind sensors to widespread mission applications. Our team is also developing new processing applications that leverage photonics technology by providing broadband, real-time sensing, and analysis of the RF spectrum. Our solutions can perform wideband processing that is not possible in either RF analog or digital format by using terahertz of bandwidth available on our optical solutions. These capabilities play an important role in coding and decoding the advanced algorithms needed to support space operations and deep space exploration.
Our Technology Is Making a Difference
Today, CACI is making real advances in optical technologies for national security missions and the federal government civilian sector. For example, NASA programs supported by the company’s photonics and optic technology include:
- The active Deep Space Optical Communication program (DSOC) experiment, which used lasers powered by CACI technology onboard the Psyche spacecraft to successfully transmit data from over 300 million miles away.
- The Integrated LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) program, which enabled the transmission of data from the International Space Station in LEO to the ground and back using a laser communications relay demonstration.
- The Optical-to-Orion (O2O) program, which will deliver broadband communication to and from the crewed Orion spacecraft during transit and while in lunar orbit. CACI has delivered the flight hardware, with an expected launch date of no earlier than 2026.
In addition to the support for these NASA programs, the company’s optics and photonics technology is also being used to advance several defense-related programs and missions, such as:
- Use of the CACI CrossBeam® FSO terminal for on-orbit testing of pointing, acquisition, and tracking algorithms for high-speed communication links under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Blackjack and Space Development Agency (SDA) Mandrake 2 satellite constellations. CACI also has SDA program wins in Tranches 0, 1, and 2.
- A test in 2022 to establish optical inter-satellite links and demonstrate closed-loop tracking that saw more than 200 gigabits of data transmitted and received. It marked the first step in establishing more secure, space-based communications networks for the Department of Defense and defense agencies. As of February 2025, the CrossBeam terminals are still supporting successful high-speed communication link demonstrations in orbit over three and a half years later.
- The Enterprise Space Terminal (EST), a U.S. Space Force initiative to develop laser communication terminals for future space systems.
- Demonstration of the Thor Airborne Optical communication terminal for air-to-space communication to the Air Force.
- Development and launch of CACI’s Skylight optical terminal, a CubeSat-compatible, small form factor communications payload.
Looking to the future
Our advances in photonics and laser communications are rightly viewed as breakthrough difference makers for the multi-domain mission demands of today’s environment, as our customers look to utilizing FSO technology for air-to-air, air-to-ground, air-to-satellite, satellite-to-satellite, satellite-to-ground, and bi-directional communications links. With demand increasing, laser communications are on track to become a routine part of the U.S. government’s space-based infrastructure.
By building on our decades of expertise in this growing field, capitalizing on investments, and delivering new, advanced technology for space, airborne, and ground systems, CACI’s reputation as a leader in U.S.-based national security will only grow as our customers achieve greater results.
