Northrop Grumman [NOC] said earlier this month it has demonstrated the interface compatibility of the next-generation Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) military communications satellite with user ground terminals using the new Extended Data Rate (XDR) waveform and protocols.
The tests were conducted using an Army user terminal as well as a terminal configuration to be used by international partners participating in Advanced EHF.
Advanced EHF is a joint service satellite communications system that will provide global survivable, protected and assured communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets.
Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector is under contract to provide the communications payloads to Lockheed Martin [LMT], the prime contractor for the Advanced EHF system.
The XDR capability and other advanced technologies will allow Advanced EHF satellites to provide 10 times more communications capacity and six times higher channel data rates than the predecessor Milstar system.
“Demonstration of the satellite-to-terminal interface shows that Advanced EHF is able to serve its U.S. and international users with the high-data-rate protected communications that are so critical to today’s warfighter,” Alexis Livanos, corporate vice president and president of the company’s Space Technology sector, said. “We are very pleased to continue on course, with industry and government, in delivering this capability to our customers.”
Earlier testing in May 2006 verified the backward compatibility of Advanced EHF with legacy terminals using Low Data Rate (LDR) and Medium Data Rate (MDR) waveforms. This latest demonstration was conducted using terminals modified for the higher rate XDR capability of Advanced EHF, and demonstrated operation of all three waveforms, LDR, MDR and XDR.
During the course of several weeks, 84 test objectives were demonstrated with the Advanced EHF payload interfacing to XDR-compatible terminals, including the Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical terminal (WIN-T), the international variant of the Secure Mobile Anti-Jam Reliable Tactical Terminal (SMART-T), and Lincoln Laboratory‘s Advanced Universal System Test Terminal (AUST-T).
The test team, sponsored by Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, was led by Northrop Grumman, and included participants from the Joint Terminal Engineering Office (JTEO), Lockheed Martin, Army WIN-T program, Lincoln Laboratory, and Raytheon [RTN], which makes the terminals.
Other military satellite communications programs, including the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) and the Enhanced Polar System, also will utilize XDR waveforms.
The Lockheed Martin-led team is currently under contract to provide three Advanced EHF satellites and the mission control system to its customer, the Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing, located at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif