[SatNews] Astrium Services has been awarded a contract by the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) to deliver the AirPatrol airborne SATCOM terminal to support Canada’s Radar and Imaging for the Land/Littoral Environment (RIFL2E) Technology Demonstration Project (TDP).

The terminal, which will be delivered and supported by Astrium Services’ Secure Satcom Systems, will enable DND to evaluate the technical feasibility and operational capability of an airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform. The RIFL2E project is designed to enhance coastal surveillance and support Canadian northern sovereignty. AirPatrol has been developed in response to the growing demand from military and other customers who are increasingly reliant on the secure transmission of video, multispectral and radar imagery, particularly from UAVs.

The light-weight design of the terminal, made possible with the use of composite materials, means that AirPatrol can be much more easily integrated onto a variety of aircraft than its heavier alloy alternatives, ensuring that the terminal has a minimum impact on the aircraft’s overall flight performance. AirPatrol benefits from an advanced stabilisation system that is designed to handle complex airborne manoeuvres, so that the antenna always remains accurately pointed to maintain a secure communication link at all times. The terminal also incorporates carbon composite materials into the antenna design. The use of carbon composites permit a higher level of radio frequency (RF) path integration, resulting in improved performance when compared with standard aluminium antennas; exceptional 20Mbps data rates have been demonstrated at X-band, using the standard 60cm dish, in some cases providing at least three times the capacity of a standard antenna.