Source: DTN News / Northrop Grumman Corporation (NSI News Source Info) SAN DIEGO, - May 26, 2010: Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has successfully completed flight testing of an airborne satellite communications system, part of a network that will significantly enhan+DTN.jpg)
ce communications capabilities for warfighters. This represents the first airborne terminal system to be certified for connection to the Wideband Global Satellite (WGS).
The flight test used the communications terminal system installed on a modified business jet aircraft to connect with a WGS via the Ka-band link. The test – which measured terminal performance including high data rates – is the second of three phases required to certify the airborne communications system for WGS operations.
"This is a tremendous step forward in realizing the objective of a redundant, robust and multi-layered approach to airborne communications and ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) dissemination that our senior leaders and warfighters deserve. It was really a superb joint effort involving close Army, Navy and Air Force cooperation and partnerships throughout the test phases," said Craig Lucas, program director for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).
Northrop Grumman is performing the certification under the Multi-Role Tactical Common Data Link (MR-TCDL) Developmental and Operational Test program contract. The MR-TCDL system provides combat personnel with critical real-time networking connectivity by enabling extremely fast exchange of data via ground, airborne and satellite networks.
"MR-TCDL's ability to dynamically route IP data seamlessly between space, aerial and ground layers is why it's the centerpiece of joint aerial layered networking concepts. This successful demonstration of airborne Ka access is critical to achieving this end," said Dave Gay, global communications division chief for U.S. Strategic Command.
The Defense Micro-Electronics Activity awarded the 30-month, $69 million MR-TCDL contract to support CERDEC.
The WGS satellites are elements of a system that increases U.S. communications capabilities, supporting the U.S. Department of Defense's war-fighting information exchange requirements, enabling execution of tactical command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); battle management; and combat support information. The Ka-band WGS link uses a less-congested frequency band than other satellites and enables high data-rate information assimilation by airborne and ground-based terminals.
Northrop Grumman's teammates on the program include U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.; L-3 Communications South West, Salt Lake City, Utah; Alpha Research & Technology Inc., El Dorado Hills, Calif., and Orion Air Group, Tucson, Ariz.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.
+DTN.jpg)
ce communications capabilities for warfighters. This represents the first airborne terminal system to be certified for connection to the Wideband Global Satellite (WGS).
The flight test used the communications terminal system installed on a modified business jet aircraft to connect with a WGS via the Ka-band link. The test – which measured terminal performance including high data rates – is the second of three phases required to certify the airborne communications system for WGS operations.
"This is a tremendous step forward in realizing the objective of a redundant, robust and multi-layered approach to airborne communications and ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) dissemination that our senior leaders and warfighters deserve. It was really a superb joint effort involving close Army, Navy and Air Force cooperation and partnerships throughout the test phases," said Craig Lucas, program director for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).
Northrop Grumman is performing the certification under the Multi-Role Tactical Common Data Link (MR-TCDL) Developmental and Operational Test program contract. The MR-TCDL system provides combat personnel with critical real-time networking connectivity by enabling extremely fast exchange of data via ground, airborne and satellite networks.
"MR-TCDL's ability to dynamically route IP data seamlessly between space, aerial and ground layers is why it's the centerpiece of joint aerial layered networking concepts. This successful demonstration of airborne Ka access is critical to achieving this end," said Dave Gay, global communications division chief for U.S. Strategic Command.
The Defense Micro-Electronics Activity awarded the 30-month, $69 million MR-TCDL contract to support CERDEC.
The WGS satellites are elements of a system that increases U.S. communications capabilities, supporting the U.S. Department of Defense's war-fighting information exchange requirements, enabling execution of tactical command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); battle management; and combat support information. The Ka-band WGS link uses a less-congested frequency band than other satellites and enables high data-rate information assimilation by airborne and ground-based terminals.
Northrop Grumman's teammates on the program include U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.; L-3 Communications South West, Salt Lake City, Utah; Alpha Research & Technology Inc., El Dorado Hills, Calif., and Orion Air Group, Tucson, Ariz.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.CONTACT:
Janis Lamar
Northrop Grumman Information Systems
(703) 345-7046
janis.lamar@ngc.com
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tries' other dealings in maturity and sophistication.
Admiral Robert Willard told People's Liberation Army deputy chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, that it was regretful that military ties were so far behind the "other very mature engagements that occur between our two countries."
Willard made the comment during the first high-level military talks between the sides since Beijing suspended military exchanges earlier this year in anger over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island China claims as its own territory.
Ma voiced his own frustration, saying Chinese plans for military exchanges with the United States in 2010 had been "seriously disrupted" by the Obama administration's announcement in January. Washington said Jan. 30 that it would go ahead with a sale of $6.4 billion in military hardware to Taiwan — including helicopters, missiles and other weapons.
Willard is in Beijing as part of a second round of strategic talks, termed the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, that began last year in Washington. The gathering brings together dozens of Cabinet officials from both sides, the chiefs of both central banks and military officers.
"It has been a great pleasure to attend the Strategic Economic Dialogue. I've been struck by the maturity and sophistication in the level of exchange between the United States in China in a wide variety of areas," Willard told Ma. "Regretfully, the military to military relationship, we think, lags far behind these other very mature engagements that occur between our two countries."
Reporters were ushered out of the room shortly after Willard's comments and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was not immediately able to confirm what else was discussed.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. Beijing continues to claim the island as part of its territory and has threatened to invade if Taiwan moves to make its de facto independence permanent.
