Orbit of Babel: SDA developing 'translators' to get data from ISR sats to warfighters
"Translator" payloads are necessary because many of today's commercial remote sensing providers do not, and will not, have the ability to equip their satellites with optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) required to link to the agency's Transport Layer birds, said SDA Director Derek Tournear.
Source: breakingdefense.com