L-3 Communications has announced that U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Systems Integration Command (JFCOM/JSIC) has procured three L-3 Communications Ku-Band Communications-On-The-Move (COTM) satellite terminal antenna systems.
The COTM SATCOM terminals will initially be used by the United States Army in proof-of-concept exercises and, later, fielded into an operational theater. The purchase culminates successful demonstrations conducted and evaluated by the JSIC.
During those COTM demonstrations, L-3's antenna system never lost contact with the satellite, and successfully illustrated the capability to provide a variety of uninterrupted communication services including, secure telephone Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), two-way Video Teleconferencing (VTC) using "Netmeeting", two-way InfoWorkSpace (IWS) collaboration and "whiteboarding", and open internet browsing while moving over rough terrain.
"This initial antenna system acquisition is of a limited quantity," said Ron Gorda, president of L-3's Information Products Division.
"Its importance, however, lies in the validation of antenna pointing and tracking technologies that will equip warfighters with high-data rate, beyond-line-of-sight connectivity, in an off-road, on-the-move environment. All of these are likely to be instrumental in the achievement of true Network Centric Operations capability."
L-3's Information Products Division designed and developed the antenna and tracking system, while base band and Human Machine Interface (HMI) elements were provided by other manufacturers.
In a related development, L-3's Ku Band COTM antenna system has also recently received an experimental Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to operate in a non-spread mode anywhere in the continental United States.
