Thinkom, a company that manufactures ultra-efficient, low-profile antennas that deliver high speed broadband to millions of people has announced that its ThinAir® Ka2517 phased-array satellite antenna is selected by Northrop Grumman, a leader in solving the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide, to provide beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) connectivity for its MQ-4C Triton flying test bed (FTB).
Northrop Grumman uses a twin-engine Gulfstream IV as an FTB for the U.S. Navy’s MQ-4C Triton autonomous high-altitude, long-endurance maritime surveillance system. The FTB is outfitted with the core mission payload capabilities that are on the Triton unmanned aircraft and is used to demonstrate current capabilities, provide risk reduction for new capabilities and serve as a developmental test bed for emerging capabilities.
Based on ThinKom’s patented VICTS* technology, the Ka2517 is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) wideband satellite antenna system, which provides global pole-to-pole in-flight connectivity with extremely high throughput rates using military and commercial Ka-band satellite networks. Ka2517s are operational on hundreds of commercial airliners and military aircraft with industry-leading MTBF metrics.
“The Ka2517 antenna is modem- and network-agnostic, enabling voice, data and streaming video with seamless interoperability on GEO and NGSO constellations. It also has the RF performance to operate effectively using frequency-hopping protected waveforms and supports industry-leading low probability of intercept (LPI) and low probability of detection (LPD) requirements,” said Bill Milroy, CTO and chairman of ThinKom.
Initial flights of the Triton FTB with the ThinKom antenna are expected to take place in the second quarter of 2022.
Click here to learn more about this ThinAir® Ka2517 phased-array satellite antenna from Thinkom.
Click here to learn more about Northrop Grumman's MQ-4C Triton Flying Test Bed (FTB).
