Demo Done By Northrop Grumman For EHF

Northrop Grumman Corporation [NYSE:NOC] has demo’d the interface compatibility of the nexgen Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) military communications satellite with user ground terminals using the new Extended Data Rate (XDR) waveform and protocols. Tests were conducted using a U.S. Army user terminal as well as a terminal configuration to be used by international partners participating in Advanced EHF. Advanced EHF is a joint service satellite communications system that will provide global survivable, protected and assured communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets. Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector is under contract to provide the communications payloads to Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the Advanced EHF system. The XDR capability and other advanced technologies will allow Advanced EHF satellites to provide 10x more communications capacity and six times higher channel data rates than the predecessor Milstar system. Earlier testing in May 2006 verified the backward compatibility of Advanced EHF with legacy terminals using Low Data Rate (LDR) and Medium Data Rate (MDR) waveforms. This latest demo was conducted using terminals modified for the higher rate XDR capability of Advanced EHF, and demonstrated operation of all three waveforms—LDR, MDR and XDR.
During the course of several weeks, 84 test objectives were demonstrated with the Advanced EHF payload interfacing to XDR-compatible terminals, including the U.S. Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical terminal (WIN-T), the international variant of the Secure Mobile Anti-Jam Reliable Tactical Terminal (SMART-T), and Lincoln Laboratory‘s Advanced Universal System Test Terminal (AUST-T). The test team, sponsored by U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, was led by Northrop Grumman, and included participants from the Joint Terminal Engineering Office, Lockheed Martin, U.S. Army WIN-T program, Lincoln Laboratory, and Raytheon (terminal manufacturer). Other military satellite communications programs, including the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) and the Enhanced Polar System, also will use XDR waveforms—Redondo Beach, California