Comtech Systems has told MONS that it is 14 months away from completing the development of its Protected Ultra satellite communications system
Speaking during the Association of the United States Army exhibition held in Washington DC between 9th and 11th October, the firm added that the terminal can transmit across Q-band (33 gigahertz/GHz to 50GHz), X-band (7.9GHz to 8.4GHz – uplink/7.25GHz to 7.75GHz downlink), Ku-band (14GHz – uplink/10.9GHz to 12.75GHz – downlink) and Ka-band (26.5Ghz to 40GHz – uplink/18GHz to 20GHz – downlink), with only a change of feed and transceiver required to this end.
The company continued that the Protected Ultra has robust anti-jamming capabilities with low probability of detection and interception. The terminal can be made ready using “single button deployment and operation,” the Comtech told MONS. This counter-electronic countermeasure capability was realised to enable the terminal to “work in a heavily contested RF (Radio Frequency) environment.” Regarding data rates, the firm added that when transmitting in Q-band, it can handle 8.144mbps (megabits-per-second), although it is possible to extend this to ten megabits-per-second across other frequencies. In addition to the single antenna Protected Ultra, the firm is developing a dual antenna variant for shipborne operations to allow the maintenance of line-of-sight communications when a ship is manoeuvring. The firm is currently awaiting customers for both products.
Dr. Thomas Withington
