Defence Business: ITT offers pocket satcom system | ADM Dec 2010/Jan 2011

American electronics giant ITT has lost no time in following up its recent selection as the Electronic warfare (EW) system provider for the RAN’s Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyers.

The company, which opened its new Canberra office earlier this year, will use the Land Warfare Conference to launch into the regional market a new hand-held satellite communications (satcom) system which provides On-The-Move (OTM) communications at the patrol/platoon/company level.

ITT’s RO Tactical Radio is already in service with US troops for undisclosed applications in the Middle East.

It uses the Iridium low earth orbit (LEO) satellite network as its bearer, but isn’t a telephone as such – the company calls it a Push To Talk (PTT) radio.

Basically, it’s a radio with the added wrinkle that it doesn’t use the Iridium gateway but instead communicates directly with the Iridium satellite through the medium of the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Enhanced Mobile Satellite Service (EMSS) and Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS) architecture.

The EMSS uses the Iridium service to provide low-rate voice and data communications and some unique Defence features including end to end encryption and interfaces via the Defense Information Systems Network gateway in Hawaii to the Defense Switched Network.

Importantly, the RO Tactical Radio needs no ground infrastructure.

Users can reach other RO Tactical Radios within a 100-mile range anywhere in the world so long as they have line-of-sight to the LEO constellation – and of course it has 100 per cent pole to pole coverage and can be used on the move.

In late 2010, ADM was told, its range will be extended to 250 miles.

However, the radios do not communicate directly with each other as traditional LOS radios; instead, they communicate through the iridium system.

The range restriction reflects the system’s tactical focus; it may also reflect the power demands on the system due to the broadcast nature of tactical radio.

This unique capability focuses on providing the disadvantage user (small unit commanders, operating in widely dispersed areas or in heavy terrain) the ability to communicate with his unit while on the move and at distances extending beyond the horizon.  

Most Iridium traffic is single link, point to point, but a tactical network could see a user broadcast to multiple nodes simultaneously which would affect satellite transponder capacity and system bandwidth. 

Its key attribute is its ability to provide unbroken communications between small units, such as special force patrols, and their headquarters in remote, mountainous country such as Afghanistan or Norway where mountains block line of sight VHF and UHF communications between ground units, and atmospheric effects (not confined to the Aurora Borealis or Australis) can play havoc with HF wireless links.

As one would expect, the RO Tactical radio is about the size of other traditional tactical hand-held radios.

It weighs half a kilogram and fits a typical ammunition pouch.

It has a built-in microphone and speaker as well as a connector for a tactical headset or telephone-style handset.

It uses four CR123 non-rechargeable lithium batteries.

The device functions like a normal radio – it broadcasts to its ‘net’; it can accommodate up to five different nets, has a built-in GPS using the same antenna.

It can also be connected to a PC or other device to send and receive data.

However, unlike a radio net, this system requires a monthly service charge because it uses the commercial Iridium LEO constellation.

Customers need service approval from the DISA and there’s an activation fee as well as a monthly recurring fee for using the service. 

At the time of writing, the fee structure hadn’t been disclosed to the media so it’s not clear whether this will be based on Iridium’s ‘cost per minute’ model (the Pentagon is already one of Iridium’s major customers, pre-paying for millions of service minutes), or a flat fee; nor whether this fee will be payable to the Iridium network direct or to the DISA.

For interest, a commercial Iridium service reseller can offer iridium to iridium telephone services at $1.15 for 30 seconds.

In any case, the network will be controlled by the Pentagon, so access to it will be limited to those it considers to be friendly.

Company sources told ADM that ITT Electronic Systems’ Communications Systems business in Dulles, Virginia, is willing to set up demonstrations for approved potential customers.