During an exercise with the I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, CA, Raytheon successfully demonstrated that a traditional, transportable satellite communications terminal could be field configured to communicate without acquiring a satellite connection.
This capability, known as Troposcatter, or TROPO, transmits radio waves over the curvature of the Earth without using satellites. The US military currently employs these systems for tactical and strategic communications throughout the world.
“This demonstration showed that it is possible to provide a viable alternative to traditional satellite communications with a light-weight, low power and rapidly deployable solution,” said Jerry Powlen, vice president, Network Centric Systems’ Integrated Communications Systems.
“Enemy threats to satellite communications are real. We are offering a high performance, cost-effective solution to counter these threats.”
Colonel Kirk Bruno, information technology officer for the I Marine Expeditionary Force, said: “The ease of deployment and setup and the improved data rates with the TROPO systems drastically reduce the support needed to carry out a mission. Increased data throughput without relying on already stressed satellites is critical and unlike satellite communications, TROPO systems provide cost-free access.”
Raytheon established the TROPO communications link between its Dual-mode, All-band Re-locatable Tactical Terminal, or DART-T, and a modified Joint Network Node satellite transportable terminal. The demonstration showed that the widely fielded JNN terminal could be adapted to include a high bandwidth troposcatter mode, which not only minimizes the current limitation of existing satellite bandwidth, but also provides continuous and reliable communications in areas of the world that do not have access to SATCOM.