ThinKom Solutions has been contracted to supply phased-array satellite terminals for the US Army’s Armored Brigade Combat Teams (ABCT) communications-on-the-move (COTM) pilot programme.
The company said that the ABCT COTM solution will integrate improved ‘mobile network solutions directly onto select vehicles’.
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This integration is to make command posts ‘more expeditionary’ and help retain network connectivity across the battlespace.
Currently, the US Army is preparing for an ABCT OTM pilot project this year.
This project is aimed at enhancing mobile battlefield ABCT network communications and will test new commercial network system prototypes integrated onto select ABCT vehicles.
ThinKom provided three ThinSat 300 vehicular satellite antennas as part of the US Army’s contract award to General Dynamics in September last year.
General Dynamics Mission Systems acquired the antennas ‘for testing as a design option for mounting on command-post vehicles in armour formations’.
ThinKom CTO and chairman Bill Milroy said: “The ABCT pilot programme will demonstrate that our field-proven commercial off-the-shelf technology can provide a reliable and low-cost solution to meet this demanding requirement in support of US armed forces.”
The Ku-band ThinSat 300 antennas are based on the company’s proven ‘Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub (VICTS) phased-array technology’.
According to the company, VICTS antennas are currently deployed on over 1,600 aircraft with more than 20 million accumulated operational hours.
Furthermore, vehicle-mounted VICTS antennas are widely deployed in various commercial and government COTM programmes.
According to the US Army’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T), the COTM experimentation programme will lead to prototype deployment and testing in 2023.
