Airbus is partnering with the Spectra Group Ltd. to provide tactical radio extension service, Airbus said on Monday.
The service is aimed at providing global government users of tactical radios the ability to extend their communications reach beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) using commercial communications satellites (satcom). The service is designed to augment Airbus’ existing UHF radio product by combining Inmarsat’s L-TAC service, commercial satcom (L-band), and Spectra’s SlingShot.
The SlingShit is a small, lightweight device compatible with existing tactical radio hardware to extend voice and data communications to areas where radio coverage is not otherwise available, Airbus said.
“The ability to communicate from anywhere to anywhere is critical in the military environment. As a specialist military satcoms service provider, it is important for us to have a wide range of solutions in our portfolio to meet all our customers’ needs and requirements. We are pleased to partner with Spectra to offer this unique radio extension capability,” Colin Paynter, head of Airbus Defence and Space UK, said in a statement.
The company highlighted cost savings because the product does not require significant hardware modifications of investment and has a range of flexible short-term leasing options. The radio extension service is available for tactical users, vehicle platforms, and maritime uses.
The global L-band coverage allows 25mHz channels to be broken into sub-channels and single, customized and multi-operational beams.
“We are delighted that Airbus Defence and Space’s customers will now have access to the SlingShot® solution through the use of the L-TAC service. Our aim was to build a simple, cost-effective and reliable system that allowed end-users to maintain communications in all types of situations and locations. By working with Inmarsat to develop the L-band service and ensuring the SlingShot® appliqué was able to work with existing radios we have done just that. And with each new development we continue to provide new and innovative ways to maintain secure communications wherever and whenever in the world,” Simon Davies, CEO of Spectra, said.
“Working closely with our partner Spectra, we have responded to a market need to solve the bottleneck of limited UHF space capacity. We have also taken into account users’ ever tightening budgets by implementing access to the capability via a small low cost appliqué unit, allowing existing radios to be used,” Peter Dingley, vice president of Inmarsat Global Government, said.