Jay Clemens
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and XTAR have demonstrated a high-throughput intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance service on a C-130 hatch with the use of the former company’s AIRLINK X-1 antenna.
AIRLINK X-1 was certified to access XTAR satellites after a terminal sent 4.5 megabits per second of data through the XTAR-LANT satellite during the demonstration that occurred at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, Ball Aerospace said Tuesday.
The company developed phased array building blocks to help configure the X-band aperture based on the size, weight, power and throughput requirements of airborne, maritime and ground platforms.
Rob Freedman, vice president and general manager of tactical services at Ball Aerospace, said Airlink X-1 represents an update in phased array technology to provide communications to warfighter.
AIRLINK X-1 is designed to operate with Wideband Global SATCOM and commercial X-band satellites.
