Jay Clemens
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for companies to develop a military wireless data link under a $27 million project, Military & Aerospace Electronics reported Monday.
John Keller writes the agency issued a solicitation for the second and third phases of the 100-gigabit-per-second RF backbone project intended to transmit data within a single RF and microwave frequency channel.
DARPA plans to award contracts to two companies, down from six in the first phase, for the development of a prototype airborne data link that uses high-order modulation and spatial multiplexing to transmit data at 100 gigabits per second, according to the report.
Under the second and third phases, companies will focus on building an integrated prototype airborne data link for flight testing, the report says.
The 100G prototype will undergo flight testing at the China Lake Naval Weapons Center near Ridgecrest, California, Military & Aerospace Electronics reports.
The airborne data links are intended to connect military network nodes and handle voice, video, Internet and data flows, Keller reports.
Submissions to the solicitation are set to close on April 28.
