Harris Corp. has successfully completed the Advanced EHF Multi-band Terminal Prototype Testing (PT1) on its tri-band ship antenna and associated RF components five months ahead of schedule.
Early completion of the PT1 testing ensures that compliant hardware will be available for system-level testing of the Navy Multi-band Terminal scheduled for March 2007. The testing is part of the US Navy competition for the engineering, manufacture and development phase of the contract, which is expected to be awarded in June 2007 and could exceed $1 B in value by 2015 for the winning company.
Harris won a contract in 2003 to develop four prototypes of the next generation AEHF Navy Multi-band terminal for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which awarded the contract on behalf of its organizational partner, the Navy’s Program Executive Office for C41.
The first phase of the program is a 43-month effort to design and develop Q-band SATCOM submarine and shipboard terminals in support of the Navy’s FORCEnet concept.
The new terminals will provide the Navy with a modernized, highly reliable system that provides more than four times the data capacity of today’s Milstar terminals. Additional phases will add high performance Ka- and X-band capabilities to the common terminal.
The resulting system will replace current single- and dual-band terminals, yielding significant life cycle cost reductions and improved reliability. This approach offers the Navy better access to SATCOM assets, increased bandwidth and protection from jamming and interception of transmissions.