ThinKom has successfully completed over-the-air tests of two K/Q-band phased-array antennas on an Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite.
The tests verified that the multi-beam antenna, based on the Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub (VICTS) architecture from ThinKom, meets or exceeds all performance metrics for operating effectively with the frequency-hopping waveform of the AEHF protected communications satellite network.
A broad range of uplink and downlink communication plans and modes were tested on an operational K/Q-band satellite, exercising full 1GHz and 2GHz hopped bandwidths, ThinKom announced on 11 January.
The stabilised beam of the VICTS antenna requires substantially less processing power than electronically steered antennas ‘and given that VICTS is the only phased-array technology that can work with very widespread waveforms, it uniquely enables use on new communication waveforms such as the Protected Tactical Waveform’, said Bill Milroy, chairman and chief technology officer of ThinKom Solutions.
The conformal flat-panel VICTS phased-array antennas can be cavity-mounted on a variety of airborne, naval and land-mobile platforms, according to Milroy.
The United States Space Force operates a constellation of six AEHF satellites to provide survivable and jam-resistant SATCOM for US air, land and sea assets.
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