Deployable Satcom Terminal for Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)

A deployable communications terminal design has been demonstrated under the MDA Phase I SBIR. This design allows for multi-data communications at GMD locations for secure data transmission, as well as non-secure data transmission for “quality-of-life” communications and data flow. These systems may also serve as rapidly deployed and reliable backup networks in emergency situations. The operational performance of the system was recently demonstrated during Hurricane Katrina with great success. The Phase II effort will focus on developing a system that provides architectures for a test network for a predictive maintenance unit. This will address the gap where operational networks are dedicated and not available for evaluation of technology. The system design will be further optimized during in Phase II. The tracking and deployment system demonstrated will be refined and designed to be scaleable to a variety of apertures. Several test articles will be fabricated and tested. The communications interfaces will be integrated into the antenna system including the modems and networks. Trades will be performed with various modems and waveforms. Integrated testing at a variety of frequencies will be done for certification testing. Communication links with a number of satellite systems will be demonstrated at test sites.