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Satnews Daily
January 26th, 2012

Vizada Networks... VCAS Venture In Afghanistan (SATCOM)


[SatNews] Vizada Network, recently acquired by Astrium, has completed the installation of a custom designed....

....VSAT Camp Antenna System (VCAS) for FMV, the Swedish Defence Material Administration. The antenna system will be used by the Swedish Armed Forces (SwAF) within their role as members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Afghanistan. FMV handled the commercial and technical part of this procurement, appointing Vizada Networks as the preferred supplier following an open RFP, while operation of the system in theater is performed by SwAF.

In addition to providing the best balanced value/technical proposal, the RFP required the supplier to have the logistical and technical presence in theatre to guarantee Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) of less than four hours for any electrical part (BUC, LNB, control units, fibre conversion units etc) of the VCAS, when applicable spare parts and personnel are available. The scope of supply included design, implementation, and integration of the VCAS, on-site installation, testing and training. The VCAS is based on a 3.8m antenna that may be operated in the X-, Ku- and C-band frequencies by changing the antenna feed and RF-equipment. In addition to the antenna itself, Vizada Networks engineers also installed the RF Ku-band kit and Spectrum Analysers before carrying out in-depth operator and technical training on the system. Subsequent to the completion of the VCAS, the Swedish Defence Material Administration has recently awarded Vizada Networks the contract to develop and install a second VCAS.