Navy installing satellite broadband on ships

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command has started to deploy a new generation of shipboard satellite terminals that will boost the bandwidth ships at sea use by as much as 10 times to transmit voice, video and data faster.

Comment on this article in The Forum.Spawar plans to install terminals on about 200 ships through its $175 million Commercial Broadband Satellite Program. Three types of terminals will be deployed, with the size of the ship determining how large a terminal is installed, said Capt. John Pope, Spawar communications program manager.

The smallest terminals, manufactured by CVG Inc., based in Chantilly, Va., have nearly a 1.2-meter antenna, operate in the Ku-band (10.95 to 14.5 gigahertz) and will be installed on the smallest ships in the Navy, such as mine countermeasures vessels and coastal patrol ships.

The ships currently operate with terminals that have a data rate of 128 kilobits per second compared with the CVG terminals' data rate of 881 kbps. The average data rate for home Internet broadband connections is a faster rate of 7 megabits per second.

CVG will deliver up to 67 terminals, said Steve Gizinski, president and chief executive officer.Installing the small terminals is a priority of the Navy program because the sailors on these vessels are "bandwidth disadvantaged," said Melinda Ratz, assistant program manager for the broadband satellite program.

The Navy recently completed atest of the CVG terminal on the USS Champion, a mine countermeasures ship, and its captain, Lt. Cmdr. John Callaway, said the increased bandwidth allowed him to surf the Defense Department's classified Internet while at sea.

The medium-size terminals, provided by Harris Corp., based in Melbourne, Fla., have a 1.3-meter antenna, operate in the Ku- and X-band (7 GHz to 12.5 GHz), and provide a much faster data rate of 21.4 mbps. The terminals, deployed under a five-year contract with a maxim value of $77 million, will be installed on cruisers, destroyers and frigates. The Navy plans to install the terminals on some of its 30 frigates in 2009.

Harris also will manufacture the largest terminals under a five-year contract that has an estimated value of $85 million. These terminals, which have a 2.7 meter antenna, operate in the Ku- and C-band (3.7 GHz to 6.4 GHz), and will be installed on aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, Pope said. The terminals will transmit and receive data at a rate of 21.6 mbps.

Spawar said it would acquire commercial satellite service for ships equipped with the new satellite terminals in cooperation with the Defense Information Systems Agency. In procurement documents for the broadband satellite program, Spawar said new satellite terminals had to operate with commercial satellite companies including Intelsat, Eutelsat and SES-Americom.