ThinKom Solutions, Inc. and Boeing successfully demonstrated integration of the ThinAir® GT 2517 antenna with advanced modem hardware to deliver unrivaled network performance for government customers.
The test joined ThinKom’s flagship special mission antenna hardware with the Boeing WC-5000RU and Newtec MDM5010 modems in a customer-specific configuration. The companies performed a wide range of trials in the presence of government officials including streaming video, high speed file transfers and system resilience to link outages.
“Support for multi-constellation, multi-orbit communications is now a requirement, not an option, and our ThinAir GT product line is the perfect solution,” explained Bill Milroy, ThinKom’s chief technology officer and co-founder. “Combining our GT solutions with leading technology partners like Boeing’s modems and services delivers the best performance today while maintaining optionality to work with the next generation of commercial as well as protected satellite networks. This future-proof architecture ensures governments can easily and efficiently access the most resilient and secure networks wherever they operate.”
Communications were processed via Viasat’s GX Ka-band satellite network using its HCX steerable beams and military Ka-Band frequencies, demonstrating full spectrum compatibility. The efforts also tested terminal performance across an extended range of antenna elevation angles, simulating link performance during banking maneuvers critical for aero applications.
The system delivered the equivalent of more than 250 Mbps on the forward link and 110 Mbps on the return link from the ground. Even higher performance would be achieved above the clouds, making the system an ideal fit for ISR platforms and applications that require reliable, high-throughput, bidirectional communication.
“Our customers demand reliability and performance, without exception,” added Jeof McAllister, vice president of Boeing Commercial Satellite Services. “By combining our fully managed multi-orbit satellite capacity with ThinKom’s GT 2517 antenna we can offer a secure and scalable military-grade solution that is responsive to dynamic mission needs, under any conditions.”
The combined terminal deployment supports advanced features such as DVB-S2X with ACM, encryption, traffic shaping, larger channel sizes and more. All GT systems include enhanced emission controls for robust anti-jam capabilities, including low probability of intercept/detection.
ThinKom’s GT 2517 antenna is compatible with Viasat’s HCX service, with Category 4 Type Approval certification in progress. Category 1 Type Approval is also in progress for Viasat’s GX service. This system is also Army Forces Strategic Command certifiable for wideband global satcom communications.