CPI Amplifies Their Success With General Dynamics

Communications & Power Industries, Inc. (CPI) has received an initial award for satellite communications (satcom) amplifiers to support the General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies specialized satcom earth terminals. This will be for Increment One of the U.S. Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program (see Editor’s Note below for more info on this program). This is formally known as the Joint Network Node-Network (JNN-N) program. The award is for the first phase of a base-plus-four-option-years contract, for which General Dynamics has selected CPI to be the supplier of Ku-band high-power amplifiers. CPI has recently received approximately $2 million in total awards, including this initial amplifier award, from General Dynamics to support the WIN-T and JNN-N programs.




Under the initial award, CPI will provide traveling-wave tube (TWT) amplifiers to General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies for use in the STT units. CPI’s Microwave Power Products Division will outfit each STT with multiple CPI Ku-band TWT amplifiers that combine a high-efficiency helix TWT provided with an "outdoor" amplifier provided by CPI’s Satcom Division. Due to its light weight, small size and ruggedness, CPI’s TWT amplifier can be mounted on a satcom terminal’s antenna feed plate, minimizing potential radio frequency (RF) power losses associated with using longer waveguide runs and making CPI’s TWT amplifier ideal for use in transportable satcom terminals.




General Dynamics has been awarded an initial $24 million contract from the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) in Fort Monmouth, N.J. under Increment One of the WIN-T program to provide 33 Satellite Transportable Terminals (STT) and two Unit Hub SATCOM Trucks (UHST) as well as other equipment and services. If all options are exercised, the contract has a total potential value to General Dynamics of up to $721 million. The program could have a total potential value of more than $50 million to CPI—Palo Alto, California




Editors Note

What is WIN-T, you may ask? WIN-T is a tactical telecommunications system that provides command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support capabilities that are mobile and secure. WIN-T is intended for use by warfighters in the field to give them access to the Global Information Grid, the Department of Defense’s main information-sharing network, by using satellite, airborne and terrestrial communications systems. Increment One of WIN-T seeks to develop and field a mobile tactical network that will deliver voice, data and imagery to warfighters.