Lockheed Martin announced the launch of Communications-on-the-Move
(COTM) kit that gives warfighters access to various networks without having to
incorporate racks of equipment in their vehicles.
Lockheed Martin offers the potential for each
vehicle to be a network node without having to return to a depot for extensive
installation of communications equipment,” said Jim Quinn, vice president of
C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense.
Lockheed Martin’s Whetstone COTM network kit is an
affordable, platform agnostic system for extending the network to soldiers at
the tactical edge of the battlefield. This “network in a box” has a
configuration that can be tailored to meet changing mission requirements,
eliminating the need for vehicles to be tailored specifically for mobile
communications.
Depending on the mission performed, the kit can be
integrated from one platform to another in less than one hour.
It is scalable and provides SATCOM connectivity and can
support anything from small unit missions with critical voice, data and video
mission command services to filling the communications needs for a brigade
combat team command post with complete battle staff.
The communications gear includes servers, solid state
storage, a network switch, and a router. The kit can push various types of
broadband data, such as satellite imagery down to small, company-level units
that lack wideband connections.
It can equip vehicles with communications link to
satellite, Enhanced Position Location Reporting System, Single Channel Ground
and Airborne Radio System and UHF/VHF Line of Sight.
Developed as a Lockheed Martin research and development
project, the COTM kit was recently tested at the 2011 Joint Users
Interoperability Communications Exercise. During the exercise, a larger scaled
version of the kit showcased a tailored network infrastructure system which can
insert additional functionalities to a third party system.
Recently, the BSAT-3c/JCSAT-110R broadcasting and
telecommunications satellite, designed
and built by Lockheed Martin for the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation
(B-SAT) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SJC), was launched from Kourou,
French Guiana.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
