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Home >> March 2012 Edition
March 2012 Edition

UAVs + UAS, Plus First Responder + NGO Tools
Dispatches I, Information & News, by the editors
Milsat News and Products of Note
Dispatches II, Information & News, by the editors
Close Support: SatCom for UAV & Manned Aircraft, Key Is a Satellite Link for BLoS
Unmanned aerial vehicles and manned aircraft are increasingly being used as vehicles to capture intelligence data for defense, state and civil applications. The aerial vehicles are equipped with technology for both video and data collection that are communicated to a command centre for further processing. When outside the reach of direct data relays due to distance or environment (e.g. mountainous regions) satellite communications will be used for beyond-line-of-sight (BLoS) communication.
Close Support: Aeryon Scout Helps Guide Russian Tanker Renda Into Nome Alaska, Precise Imagery in the Most Demanding Conditions
Operating under an Emergency Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Association, University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute researchers are using the Scout to prepare for the arrival of Russian tanker, Renda, carrying vital fuel supplies to the remote community of Nome Alaska.
Close Support: SATCOM Lifelines, by Zahed Zaheer, Director of GMPCS Affairs, Thuraya
NGOs (Non-Governmental Organization), also known as the third sector, are playing a pivotal and catalytic role around the world in empowering and spurring communities to achieve sustainable development. According to analyst reports, NGOs are significant economic players that account heavily in some countries for GDP figures.
Focus: Toward SDR Standardization, by Carlo Zammeriello, EDA Software Defined Radio Principal Officer, and Andrea Lorelli, ETSI TC RRS Technical Officer
Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a well-established concept in the military domain where the radio is no longer the physical manufacturing of a single waveform but becomes a computer host onto which different waveforms can be loaded. The military have been studying SDR for a long time and has adopted the Software Communication Architecture (SCA) as the de-facto standard upon which different solutions can be developed.
OPS: Very Good Years For The NRL, by the editors of the NRLs SPECTRA publication
Each year, the Naval Research Laboratory leads or participates in numerous space projects in various stages of development. Normally, these culminate in a launch every few years, or perhaps a launch or two in a single year. This year, for example, the TacSat-4 satellite is ready for launch and two NRL experiments were transported to the International Space Station on Space Shuttle Endeavour.
PRIME: Nanosat Demos For The Tactical Land Warfighter, by John R. London III, USASMDC/ARSTRAT, A. Brent Marley, SMDC-RDT-SR, and David J. Weeks, SMDC-RDT-SR
Our nation has a truly impressive array of space-based capabilities supporting our armed forces. However, much of this support is focused at the strategic and operational levels of war. There are several areas of desired improvement in the space force enhancement mission area at the tactical level of war that could be addressed by small, very inexpensive satellites dedicated for use by tactical land warfighters. New trends in the miniaturization of electronic components are leading to smaller satellites with significant capabilities in the nanosatellite (1-10 kg) and microsatellite (10-100 kg) classes.
Intel: Meeting The Growing Bandwidth Demands Of A Modern Military, by David Furstenberg, Chairman, NovelSat
The unprecedented budgetary pressure imposed on the military and the Department of Defence, combined with the increasing need for additional satellite bandwidth, creates a growing gap between demand and availability. Bridging this gap is a major and pressing challenge for the defence sector. Current Issue