Satnews Daily
November 16th, 2011

ViaSat's Highest Performance From An Ultra-Small On To Special Ops (SATCOM)


[SatNews] Representatives from the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Special Forces communities experienced a major demonstration... a good one.

ViaSat Inc. [NASDAQ: VSAT] conducted a major public demonstration for members of the U.S. armed services during which it unveiled the industry’s highest performance mobile broadband system using an ultra-small aperture 12-inch Ka-band tracking antenna. Representatives from the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Special Forces communities witnessed multiple applications including full-motion HD video running concurrently over a secure, encrypted mobile satellite network.

The network included the ViaSat VR-12 Ka airborne satellite antenna and ArcLight® 2 modem mounted to a mobile vehicle. As the mobile vehicle drove around the Carlsbad area, the tracking antenna maintained its link with the satellite while demonstrating simultaneous encrypted HD video backhaul, video conferencing, IP phone communications, and http web browsing.

In the course of the demonstration the mobile satellite network was configured in a number of different modes showing a variety of forward link and return link bit rates. Configurations included ISR (Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance) operations in which the forward link maintained 4 Mbps and the return link performed at 6 Mbps.

Achieving this level of satellite system performance in such a small physical package is another important milestone for us and especially for our broadband ISR customers,” said Larry Taylor, deputy GM, ViaSat Global Mobile Broadband. “We didn't anticipate conducting the exercise during a rainstorm, but though that worst case happened, the network performed all day without a single link loss.”

The size, weight, and power envelope of the VR-12 Ka system matches that of its predecessor the VR-12 KuSS terminal, which has hundreds of units fielded. Both systems have the same platform mounting interface for ease of aircraft upgrade.