developed the microsat man-packable mission command system ... · igital-battlespace .com volume 8...

SATCOM

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SATCOM programme requirements show that military forces are looking to go ever faster, smaller and lighter when it comes to their desired capabilities. By Claire Apthorp

I n terms of SATCOM, militaries are seeking a broad range of high data rates to support agile missions, with

services including VoIP, data and full-motion video at all operational angles and look angles, in commercial and military X-band, Ku-band and commercial and military Ka-band. Terminals and antennas for SATCOM must be low-profile and lightweight with high throughput capabilities and the ability to be assembled and made operational quickly.

Packing upAs the market expands, manufacturers are adding continuous capability to soldiers at the very tactical edge of the battlefield. To appeal to this growing market, Harris

developed the Microsat Man-Packable Mission Command system, which enables voice, data and video for beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) SATCOM in areas where no infrastructure exists. The system effectively serves as ‘moveable infrastructure’, supporting both satellite and line-of-sight (LOS) communications, as well as providing IP reachback and mission command on the move.

The system operates for up to three hours on battery power, offers multi-user capability through network switching and routing, and can be carried in a single rucksack. Data rate across all bands (Ku-, Ka- commercial and military and X-band) varies from 512Kb/s to 8Mb/s.

The L-3 GCS Panther manpack very small aperture terminal (VSAT) was also developed in direct response to customer requirements for lighter, more rugged terminals that were similar in size to a broadband global area network terminal without compromising VSAT-grade capabilities.

‘Requirements such as single-case, airline carry-on solutions – along with single-man carry – simply were not

Satellite service

Panther II is designed to meet the CONOPS of small military

teams and is available in a 60 or 96cm version with X-,

Ku- or Ka-Band capability (Photo: L-3)

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‘We have seen an increasing interest within the US DoD for communications-on-the-pause SATCOM terminals that are required to utilise the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) constellation of satellites. While there are many WGS-certified terminals in the marketplace today, there are limited vehicle options. So, as announced at the 2016 Satellite exhibition in National Harbor, we have added a communications-on-the-pause variant to our WGS-certified Hawkeye III platform.’

On-the-pause communications refers to operations where military units reach a destination and then ‘pause’ to set up a station and prepare to launch a mission.

On the moveFor soldiers to remain truly connected as they navigate the battlefield, they need communications systems that provide on-the-move (OTM) capability. The main

Panther II, a rugged 60cm or 96cm manpack terminal that is small enough to be carried on a plane as cabin luggage. It is available in Ku-, X- and Ka-band and the user can change between these bands by swapping out a feed and transceiver.

L-3 GCS is also continuing to develop its Hawkeye family of terminals to meet emerging requirements from its customer base. The system is designed to provide maximum data throughput while still maintaining airline carry-on size, military-grade ruggedness and minimal set-up and tear-down time.

‘A typical CONOPS of the Hawkeye is that the systems are designed to enable small, deployed teams during mission-critical times, to reliably communicate with HQ,’ the company spokesperson said. ‘This global reach allows the user to utilise voice, video and general network connectivity from the field.

available in the current marketplace at that time,’ a company spokesperson told DB. ‘Panther was formulated by directly utilising customer requirements, down to small details such as connector types, modularity and set-up time.

‘The resulting single-case solution allows smaller tactical military teams, who may have limited pack space, to deploy with full VSAT capabilities. This also allows these elite war fighters to have full, reliable communications with HQ, and because the CONOPS for these teams is unpredictable, the modular and multi-band capabilities of these terminals are critical.’

Panther, which provides high-speed data communications for internet, VPN connectivity and video transmission, was selected for the five-year US Special Operations Command Force Deployable Node-Lite contract in 2010, and the company has since gone on to develop

The UK MoD is considering its military SATCOM options to follow Skynet when its contract with Airbus Defence and Space ends in 2022. One option that the Defence and Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is working on is the concept of ‘SmallSat’ or ‘CubeSat’ technologies.

DSTL initiated a research programme into the technology in 2012, with an industry consortium led by Roke, to deliver engineering and flight-ready modules for an advanced experimental RF payload that could be deployed in space on a CubeSat. This is a miniature satellite with a 1kg mass and 10cm³ volume, built from COTS components that offer the potential for rapid, low-cost, short-duration deployment of sensing and communications capability in low Earth orbit.

‘Back in 2009, a defence green paper came out that was all doom and gloom because there seemed to be a lack of affordability, security and sovereignty in our UK space assets, which made them vulnerable,’ Bob Dalgleish, business development manager at Roke, told DB. ‘The view was taken that these very low-

GOING SMALLER cost satellites called CubeSats, emerging in the academic domain, could potentially be applied to the UK defence frame to try and address these issues.’

The DSTL programme that grew from this dialogue – and which Roke was prime contractor for – was revolutionary in the UK as it was a £1 million ($1.5 million) research project. Previously, DSTL had not pursued space research because it was presumed that with the sorts of budgets it had available to it, little headway could be made.

However, the year-long programme culminated in the delivery of flight-ready modules by the Roke-led team, which was able to apply its heritage in cellphone technology development – an area similarly characterised by providing maximum functionality in a very small space. The 10x10cm modules showed that the UK could develop low-cost space technologies and DSTL’s wider research into space was spawned as a direct result.

‘What we see now is that the UK has a very small number of very large communication satellites in geostationary orbit in the Skynet series, and the MoD is looking forwards at what to do for the next generation,’ Dalgleish

said. ‘Having a small number of large assets makes them inherently vulnerable. Because there are so few of them, they are sitting ducks, so to speak.

‘If you want to mitigate that vulnerability, there is a potential to have very large numbers of very small satellites – so they cannot all be taken out at once – mixed with a few larger assets that will provide a network of incredible resilience.’

The main drawback of CubeSats is that being small means their capability is limited, but their affordability offers the opportunity for them to be launched in larger numbers. The fact that they are now being mass produced also means that manufacturing lead time is reduced from years – as is the case with conventional satellites – to weeks.

‘When launched in large numbers, they can be tied together to work cooperatively in space so when they are put into a constellation they can interoperate,’ Dalgleish said. ‘It also gives the flexibility to launch more when needed to augment the constellation. Eventually, we want small satellites to be able to communicate with the larger ones in order to grow a highly capable hybrid satellite network.’


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challenge here has been the development of terminals that are compact, lightweight and able to be carried by one person, while still providing the capacity to rapidly create the satellite link and maintain that link with the existing energy cells carried by dismounted soldiers.

An area of particular interest in the market at present is flat-panel antennas for SATCOM OTM. These use phased-array technology and electronic steering to track satellite signals. The low-profile systems can generally replicate the performance of much larger antenna dishes without adding bulk.

Phased array becomes important for OTM applications because the terminal antenna on the ground must remain pointed at the satellite at all times. While a standard parabolic antenna uses a mechanical gimbal to ensure this, phased array uses multiple tiny antennas to create a larger overall beam that can automatically track the satellite as it – or the satellite – moves, without the need for any mechanical parts.

One company looking into the next generation of flat-panel manpacks to support this growing requirement is Agilis, part of ST Electronics. ‘There is a lot of development into flat-panel antennas. The technology is moving there, but today the parabolic antenna still outperforms the flat panel,’ Rajanik Mark Jayasuriya, VP, satellite networks business group, ST Electronics SATCOM and sensor systems, said. ‘As newer satellites come up, especially near Earth orbit (NEO) satellites, the requirement for flat panel is increasing.’

NEO satellites are increasingly being used in military constellations – such as the Thales Alenia Spacebus NEO bus that forms the basis for one of two satellites currently in development for the French armed forces’ Comsat next-generation military SATCOM system. As these satellites are in constant motion, the automatic signal tracking of phased-array antenna provides greater performance than conventional parabolic antennas.

‘Phased array gives a significant advantage here because NEO satellites are constantly moving, so the antenna has to track the satellite at all times and switch between satellites when needed,’ Jayasuriya continued. ‘The problem with other types is you need two big antennas to switch from one to the other, but if you have phased array it is automatic.’

The company is looking into the development of its next-generation flat-panel manpack terminal to complement its new 1m and 0.75m parabolic systems.

IAI Elta is also focused on this area of development with its compact phased-array ELK-1882 SATCOM OTM personal micro-terminal, designed to provide bi-directional voice and data communication.

‘Modern CONOPS are driving to enable OTM soldier SATCOM terminals that are small in shape and form, and that maintain the satellite link while the SATCOM terminal is continuously

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moving in all directions, as the soldier manoeuvres in the field,’ Yuval Dagan, marketing deputy director at IAI Elta, said. ‘We are introducing the innovative and unique phased-array antenna that can cope with pointing towards the satellite while OTM, by electronically steering the antenna beams in reception and transmission. The ELK-1882 phased-array terminal will provide this OTM capability to the dismounted soldier.’

Dagan believes it is imperative in today’s battlefield, with operations of independent small forces BLOS, to enable continuous OTM communication for lower-echelon special forces and dismounted soldiers.

‘Currently, these fighting forces rely on either LOS systems, which cannot provide continuous and reliable communications, or transportable and stationary BLOS systems,’ he said. ‘The ELK-1882 will close the existing gap between legacy LOS tactical radios and allow for an extension of the current soldier communication network to OTM BLOS.’

Multi-band requirementsIndustry is increasingly being tasked with providing terminals that can operate across multiple frequency bands and network types to provide maximum capability to personnel in all operating areas and environmental conditions. Norsat, manufacturer of the 18kg Journey ManPack, identified this as a key area of development, with a company spokesperson telling DB that as the company continues to innovate, it is ‘continuing to offer more standard options for multi-band products in the future, including Ka- and X-band systems with WGS certification’.

The Journey ManPack delivers high data rates in a one-case package – either in a hard transit case or a soft backpack. It provides voice, video or data communications for a small- to medium-sized team anywhere in the world. It is designed to be easy to use and rugged to withstand challenging environments such as high temperatures in the desert as well as low temperatures at the poles. The terminal can support any modem chosen by the customer to match network infrastructure.

In addition to multi-band requirements, customers are also looking to maximise

their access to available networks, such as WGS. In April, the Swedish FMV procurement agency released an RfI seeking portable manpack SATCOM terminals that – in addition to being operable on X-, Ku- and Ka-band satellites – must have ‘the option to use Inmarsat GX where applicable’.

GX is Global Xpress, Inmarsat’s globally available Ka-band network built for worldwide mobility. It offers high-throughput-capacity wideband connectivity, is interoperable with MILSATCOM Ka-band networks, and allows users to access the service using a variety of existing and planned government and commercial SATCOM terminals, including WGS terminals.

Becoming relevantCommercial satellite network providers such as Inmarsat are becoming increasingly relevant, as militaries shift from sending large forces out to operate from established bases to dispatching fewer troops and deploying them more intelligently. In order for this model to work effectively, troops must be able to access SATCOM in all areas of the globe, including well outside the operating theatres of the Middle East that the majority of military SATCOM networks have been focused on serving for the past decade. Commercial providers allow these forces to supplement their indigenous SATCOM capacity with existing terminals and services.

Another company, Xtar, targets US, European and allied military forces in this market space with its commercial X-band satellite system. Its two satellites (Xtar-Lant 30°W and Xtar-Eur 29°E) provide coverage across the central and eastern US to South America and Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe and the Middle East, as far east as Singapore. With its high-powered 72MHz transponders and global, fixed and steerable beams, Xtar says it provides over 4Gb of cost-effective, flexible, secure X-band capacity. The system can accommodate very large wideband data requirements and provides overlapping coverage with regional redundancy for increased service and reliability.

The bandwidth is not application-specific; it can support and transmit to any of the primary architectures used by

military forces, including fixed-to-fixed, tactical-to-tactical, reach-back, broadcast and airborne platforms.

With nations opting into the WGS network for their wideband communications requirements, Philip Harlow, president and COO of Xtar, believes this is creating its own opportunities for the company and its offering.

‘WGS was never meant for the small, agile, austere special operations type applications,’ he said. ‘Customers using small antennas as part of their mission are not generally welcomed on it, because the satellite has to be configured to support small antennas, and that has an impact on the other users. So we see ourselves as a niche service provider for those small antenna guys – airborne, mobile ships and special operations who cannot carry large antennas as part of their mission set.’

Small benefitsThe other customer set Xtar targets is the overflow WGS user who, for whatever reason, does not have the priority to get onto WGS to fulfil their mission. ‘In that case, they need commercial bandwidth to fulfil that mission, and with our service they can bring their own equipment – without needing to go

SlingShot adapts existing tactical radios into a SATCOM capability using commercial satellites to provide real-time BLOS comms. (Photo: Spectra)

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and buy new equipment – and just point their antenna at our satellite and off they go,’ Harlow said.

Biggest benefitsIn both cases it is the mobile special operations user that can benefit most readily from Xtar’s X-band service, as this band offers superior capabilities to those mobile users with small terminals and small antennas.

‘With our fixed-beams, small antennas work extremely well with our satellites. We’ve actually found that the smaller you go in antenna size, the more X-band really starts to shine,’ Harlow said. ‘As there are only government users on X-band and there is a mandated 4°-minimum spacing between the satellites, there is less chance for adjacent or accidental interference from other users. That means you can push more data more successfully to these smaller antennas using X-band than you can using Ku- or Ka-band.

‘So, when you get to the <1m dish where Ku-band has to start spreading the

signal to make sure the throughput is achieved with the small antenna, X-band does not have those issues. We have tested antennas as small as 15cm, but operationally around 40cm is where we’re currently most comfortable.’

Highly mobileAt this point, X-band is a highly mobile place, no longer limited to the ‘big dish, static infrastructure applications’ where it has been traditionally fixed by military decision-makers. It is now a small-antenna, small-footprint, high-mobility, high-throughput in all weather conditions capability.

‘DoDs can be slow to change their thinking. In the US in particular, they are very invested in Ka-band for the future and they have gone a long way to making their mobility plane look and feel a lot like Ka-band,’ Harlow said. ‘There are some challenges there though, and I think that going away from X-band and focusing solely on Ka-band when they replace WGS antennas would be a mistake, because the technical and operational capability of X-band makes it far superior on a mobility plane, especially when you have no idea where you will be fighting – in dust, rain, at low elevations – all of which are better on X-band.’

Spectra has cornered the space between UHF/VHF LOS networks and UHF tactical satellite (TACSAT) channels with its SlingShot system – a lightweight unit that converts existing tactical radios to SATCOM.

‘The days of large forces moving into an area and setting up bases and communications infrastructure are largely over, and many operations require forces to operate at large distances apart or from their bases,’ Steff Taylor, head of business development at Spectra Group (UK), said.

‘Traditional UHF and VHF networks are LOS, and therefore repeaters have to be used in order to extend the network,’ he continued. ‘These repeaters have to be defended if ground-based, and are expensive and sometimes unavailable if airborne. Additionally, access to UHF TACSAT channels has always been limited to the highest priority users and, even then, it was not always guaranteed.’

As a result, the company developed SlingShot in 2013. The system utilises

FILLING THE GAPS readily available commercial satellite capacity, providing an interface between the tactical radio and satellite network, so that users can get assured access anywhere in the world using their existing radios. It essentially allows strategic communication ranges to be achieved using tactical radios.

SlingShot works by converting frequencies between UHF/VHF and L-Band and then communicating with an L-band satellite which provides the area of coverage. This enables radios to extend their working radio range from tens to thousands of kilometres.

‘The key advantage is that SlingShot provides BLOS communications on the move for tactical radios without compromising existing security,’ a spokesperson said. ‘The additional weight (1.5kg manpack) is minimal, and as the radio can easily be switched from L-band to its native frequency, the need to carry an additional bulky and heavy radio actually reduces the burden while massively increasing the capability.’

SlingShot is currently operational supporting land, sea and air platforms with a number of NATO countries.

Like other systems, the Journey Manpack developed from customers seeking a lightweight, one case-portable satellite terminal that delivers strong performance. (Photo: Norsat)

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