iDirect, DISA and USAF Demonstrate Next-Generation Airborne Capabilities for COTM Fast-Movers

• Successful Airborne on the Move Testing Paves Way for Secure Milsat Video, Voice and Data Communications

HERNDON, VA - iDirect Government Technologies (iGT) today announced that in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), it has successfully tested the Aero-Mobility features of iGT's advanced Evolution technology using a Ka-band Advanced Multiband Communications Antenna System (AMCAS) low-profile airborne antenna over the Department of Defense (DoD) Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) system. Considered in the context of emerging commercial Aero Mobile Satcom Services (AMSS), iGT's Evolution product family provides a unified radio access network technology option for an integrated military WGS and commercial Ka-band AMSS.

iGT's Evolution platform, which uses a Current-Force-Modem on multiple satellite bands, and the AMCAS low-profile antenna have demonstrated the capability to transmit and receive high-speed information when operating over a WGS system in Ka-band. The DISA demonstration, conducted Oct. 6, 2011, validates a qualified solution for next-generation airborne wide-body, high-Doppler on-the-move capabilities and establishes a realistic production specification by demonstrating the performance criteria in an operational environment.


For the DISA test, the AMCAS antenna was mounted on an aircraft flying over the Atlantic coastline after taking off from Hanscom Air Force Base. The evaluation was conducted at a DISA Joint Satcom Engineering Center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds using a 9.1 M Ka-STAR Hub Antenna and iGT's Evolution e8350 Internet Protocol (IP) baseband equipment.

Shaum Mittal, Chief Engineer, PEO-COMMS, DISA, stated, "This demonstration of the Aero-Mobility features over the Wideband Global Satcom System using Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology is an extremely important step toward providing viable Aero Mobile communications by using a mixture of the readily available commercial solutions and DoD assets."

iGT demonstrated its next-generation transmission standard (DVB-S2) with Adaptive Coding and Modulation outbound technology with a Multi-Frequency Time Division Multiple Access inbound IP-based platform. The demonstration also included successful evaluations of iGT's latest AES-256 based Transmission Security software. Test criteria included an airborne bi-directional video teleconferencing session while simultaneously running IP file transfer applications.

"With proven on-the-move satcom systems, airborne capabilities can be used on both manned and unmanned airborne military platforms including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions and to boost emergency disaster response," said John Ratigan, President of iGT. "By validating the integration of iGT's Evolution Satellite Router with advanced Ka-band satellites and the low-profile AMCAS antenna, the stage has been set for secure broadband communications from airborne assets in the mobile battlefield."

Source : iDirect