EHF SATCOM Terminals

Abstract

The Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT) Program is the required Navy component to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Program for enhancing protected and survivable satellite communications to Naval forces. The NMT system provides an increase in single service capability from 1.5 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 8 Mbps, increases the number of coverage areas, and retains Anti-Jam/Low Probability of Intercept (AJ/LPI) protection characteristics. It is compatible with legacy Navy Low Data Rate/Medium Data Rate (LDR/MDR) terminals and will sustain the Military Satellite Communications (MILSATCOM) architecture by providing connectivity across the spectrum of mission areas, to include land, air and naval warfare, special operations, strategic nuclear operations, strategic defense, theater missile defense, and space operations and intelligence. The NMT system replenishes and improves on Navy Military Strategic, Tactical & Relay System (MILSTAR), Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS), Wideband Global Satellite (WGS), and Global Broadcast Service (GBS) terminal capabilities. The new system equips the warfighters with assured, jam resistant, secure communications as described in both the joint AEHF Satellite Communications System and the WGS Operational Requirement Documents (ORD). Mission requirements specific to Navy operations, including threat levels and scenarios, are contained in the ORD. The NMT provides multiband Satellite Communications (SATCOM) capability for ship, submarine, and protected MILSATCOM for shore sites. The Wideband Anti-Jam Modem Systems (WAMS) enhances communication capability of shipboard and submarine NMTs by providing wideband Anti-Jam (AJ) Satellite Communication throughput over Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS). The United States Air Force (USAF) Protected Tactical Enterprise Service (PTES) program will provide the ground hub component of the WAMS communication system. This PTES joint hub will serve as a DoD enterprise service ground solution for the use of the Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW) of SATCOM communications. WAMS enables space segment AJ diversity (EHF/AEHF and WGS), thus enabling NMT ships and submarines equipped with the modem to operate in wideband links closer to threat jammers. WAMS will also include a Mini-Hub component to be fielded on all Force Level platforms to provide operations in the event Shore Communications are eliminated. WAMS enables the use of WGS X and Ka-band resources to assure access to mission critical communications in the A2AD environment. The use of WAMS Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW) on WGS will augment AEHF extended data rate (XDR) services to provide the information throughput capacity necessary to support critical Command and Control capability. Joint Aerial Layer Network-Maritime (JALN-M) is the Navy implementation of the JALN architecture which provides assured communications in any environment, especially in an Anti-Access Area Denial (A2AD) satellite denied environment. With disruption or loss of Space tier communications, JALN-M establishes and/or restores connectivity within the High Capacity Backbone (HCB) Common Data Link (CDL) tier, the Distribution Access Range Extension (DARE) tier, and the Transition tier in accordance with the JALN-M Initial Capabilities Document and the JALN Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) Final Report. JALN-M is a robust, assured communications capability providing joint connectivity via the HCB and Navy platform connectivity via a pseudo satellite DARE capability. JALN-M will use the Extended Data Rate (XDR) NMT waveform for intra-battle group DARE communications, a Common Data Link (CDL) waveform for the HCB cross-link capability, and intend to develop a pre-planned product improvement to leverage enhanced Ultra High Frequency/High Frequency (UHF/HF) waveforms for coalition connectivity. A critical component of A2AD is Adaptive Coding (AC) software development incorporation into the baseline NMT terminal including the Advanced Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) Interface Processor (ATIP) in addition to supporting the JALN-M demonstration. This capability autonomously enhances maximum throughput and supports degraded conditions by adjusting End-to-End code rate to provide continuous, mission critical, and protected communications. Technology Insertion, studies and implementation is necessary for military satellite communications systems development to support emerging technologies for Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) and Global Broadcast Service (GBS) Terminals. Efforts will include evaluation of End-to-End performance testing of data rates associated with Broadband and Broadcast transmissions. FY18 NMT activities will continue the development of WAMS technical baseline into NMT to include requirements and design changes to improve performance when operating with WAMS. Efforts will include integration strategies with DoD enterprise Protected Tactical Enterprise Service (PTES) ground solution architecture as well as WAMS specification documentation development. Efforts will continue Adaptive Coding (AC) software design development for Time of Day (TOD) encryption and begin software design development efforts to implement robust AC capability. FY18 JALN-M efforts will focus on completion of integration and testing of NMT and ATIP pre-demonstration flights and testing with Aerial Extended Data Rate (AXDR) payload to support JALN-M demonstration flight tests. The demonstration will include Navy ship-to-ship/sub and ship/afloat-to-GIG communications via Airborne JALN-M Pod hosting AXDR, High Capacity Backbone (HCB), and Assured PNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing) payloads. Results of the demonstration seeks to inform DoD and Navy leadership on the JALN way ahead (technical and programmatic risks) and of the viability of JALN-M as a future capability. FY18 Technology Insertion will support various testing efforts for Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) to evaluate End to End Performance of data rates throughout the shipboard network.

Document Details

• Document Type: Project
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2018
• Source ID: 0728_1203109N_7_1319_PB_2018

Tags

Readers

• Tactical Satellite Communications Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

• Fully Networked C3
• Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
• Space
• Space - Satellites