The contract is known as Lido, the French acronym for drone data link. No contract value has been made public. An important part of the work will consist of reducing the use of bandwidth in airborne systems as increasing deployment of UAVs will require enormous amounts of transmission capacity, with simulation used to study signal propagation. The work will be done taking into account a conference to be held in 2011 by the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. technical agency. The study program covers all types of UAVs including tactical, theater, and combat aircraft, and will include “innovative, economical bandwidth solutions, plus enhanced protection against electronic warfare,” the company said. Sagem has used the Ku-band for the data link for its Sperwer tactical drone.
(Image: Sperwer, courtesy of Sagem)
