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. Although development of the NMT terminal is complete, software and hardware upgrade development is ongoing to provide enhanced capabilities to the fleet. Development efforts, including Adaptive Coding (AC), Time of Day (TOD), and the Wideband Anti-Jam Modem System (WAMS) augment the baseline NMT system to pace the evolving threats to the warfighter. 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 to provide Assured Command and Control (AC2) capabilities in contested/degraded environments, formerly known as Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD). 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 a satellite denied environment. With disruption or loss of Space tier communications, JALN-M establishes and/or restores connectivity. A critical component of Assured Command and Control (AC2) capabilities 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. Development efforts, including Adaptive Coding, Time of Day, and the Wideband Anti-Jam Modem System (WAMS) augment the baseline NMT system to pace the evolving threats to the warfighter. The Time of Day (TOD) capability promotes communications reliability and resiliency; when the channel is degraded due to inclement weather or adversarial action. TOD enables the system to automatically transition to a more robust, lower code rate resulting in ability to maintain satellite link thereby allowing the fleet to preserve 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 in the out years. The FY19 request will provide for the continuation of enhancements to the NMT system and to define the Navy's WAMS technical baseline for integration into NMT. NMT enhancements include the completion of both the Adaptive Coding and Time of Day (TOD) software design, development, integration and test.

Document Details

• Document Type: Project
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2019
• Source ID: 0728_1203109N_7_1319_PB_2019

Tags

Readers

• Tactical Satellite Communications Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

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