Maintaining effective communication and coordination requires advanced technology, such as GPS, wearable devices, and cellular and satellite communications to provide assured position, navigation and timing data, or APNT.
Current Use by Small-Units
In a small team of special forces operators, each operator is generally deployed their own end-user device (EUD)—a cellphone with a military-specific communication and coordination application known as the Android Tactical Assault Kit or ATAK.
With conventional forces such as a typical US Army Squad consisting of approximately 16 soldiers, the situation is a bit different. The cost and deployment challenges created from equipping and training every member of a team that size with an ATAK device can be prohibitive. Correspondingly, just one member of a squad-sized unit is typically equipped with an ATAK-equipped EUD.
Lynq Pro Closes Gaps
This is one of the primary gaps that OTTO Engineering and Lynq Technologies Inc collaborated to address. The result: the Lynq Pro, a compact, handheld location awareness device that identifies and displays user and connected team member locations.
The Lynq Pro also transforms the ATAK-equipped EUD of one squad member into a gateway device. This allows users to navigate to predetermined waypoints or add markers from a connected ATAK device. It also supplements verbal communication with easy-to-use text capabilities.
Lynq Pro connects team members in denied environments, increasing battlefield situational awareness, and allowing for continued mission support, safety, and lethality.
“Lynq Pro’s fused GNSS technology provides users the most accurate positioning displayed in multiple formats and encrypted within the network of connected devices,” says Robb Meng, with OTTO.
Each team member has real time PLI (Position Location Information) data using GPS. Future versions will include inertial measurement units for denied environments. Lynq Pro’s display provides concise orientation and distance to different users and waypoints, allows soldiers to communicate important messages, and transmits and receives important data from ATAK to provide additional battlefield awareness.
Key Advantages
Lynq Pro is well positioned to address multiple gaps in other navigation tools currently available by providing a robust feature set at a price point comparable to less complete solutions. Lynq Pro offers:
- Hyper-enabled situational awareness
- ATAK interoperability, without the need for a cellular connection
- A grab and go solution for clandestine messaging and battlefield tracking
- Functionality with or without EUD
- Low-probability of intercept/low-probability of detect (LPI/LPD) security using a leading-edge network technology
- Works in comms-denied or RF contested battlefields
- Reduces size, weight, and power consumption as well as total kit cost. Swap-C compliant
- All in 1 solution, without the need for add-ons
OTTO & Lynq Technologies’ newest communication device, the Lynq Pro, addresses the biggest gaps in current small unit military communication by providing an inexpensive, scalable, and robust GPS device to connect every member of squad-sized teams like never before. The security, flexibility, and usability of the Lynq Pro makes it the ideal solution, all at a price on par with less-sophisticated options on the market.
For more information visit https://www.ottofedmil.com
