Industry team demonstrates autonomous SATCOM switching

Hughes, SES Satellites and Honeywell announced on 21 December that they have successfully demonstrated and delivered autonomous SATCOM switching to and from UAVs and fixed-wing aircraft for increased resilience, throughput and security.

The JetWave MCX broadband SATCOM solution from Honeywell used an HM-series modem from Hughes Network Systems and was paired with the medium earth orbit high-throughput, low-latency network from SES and multiple SES geostationary satellites, including the government-dedicated GovSat-1 satellite.

To achieve additional levels of security, the companies leveraged the military Ka-band government frequencies delivered via GovSat-1 and the software-defined Hughes HM-series modem.

‘These capabilities ensure that today’s warfighters have the data they need, when and wherever they need it, including in contested and high-activity environments,’ Honeywell claimed.

The company added: ‘Airborne demonstrations showed that Honeywell’s JetWave MCX terminal is compatible with various Ka-band network capabilities and can provide military customers with network resilience that supports primary alternate contingency and emergency (PACE) communication requirements.’