Armada’s monthly roundup of all the latest news in the military communications product, programme and operational domains.
MUOS Streams Video
An important step forward has been taken concerning the ability of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) Satellite Communications (SATCOM) constellation to carry streaming video. MUOS is a narrowband SATCOM network using frequencies of 300 megahertz/MHz to 320MHz for uplink. Frequencies of 360MHz to 380MHz are used for downlink, according to open sources. These same sources note that voice and data traffic can move across the network at speeds of circa 39.2 megabits-per-second. SATCOM terminals and modems must use the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access waveform to gain access to the MUOS constellation. MUOS is primarily used by the United States military and allied nations like Canada. Reticulate Micro, together with Curtiss Wright and NanTenna, demonstrated that live video could be streamed over the network during a recent US Army exercise. The demonstration was noteworthy because narrowband links are not traditionally associated with data-heavy traffic like streaming video. Reticulate Micro told Armada, via a written statement, that the video was streamed over a single channel, as opposed to binding multiple channels to ensure sufficient bandwidth. The company said this recent experiment saw a single channel with 64 kilobits-per-second of bandwidth being used. Reticulate Micro employed its VAST video encoder for the demonstration. VAST worked with Curtiss-Wright’s PacStar Modular Radio Centre and L3Harris’ AN/PRC-117G multiband (20MHz to two gigahertz) networking radios. Plans are afoot to test the VAST’s abilities to carry two-way voice and video traffic and the company expects this capability to be ready for use in early 2025.
Battle Proven
Staying with Reticulate Micro, the company has teamed up with Ukraine’s Himera to offer the latter’s Himera-G1 Pro handheld radio to customers in the United States. The radio was unveiled earlier in July 2024 and has been developed with robust electronic protection protocols as standard. A press release announcing the radio’s launch stated that the Himera-G1 has AES-256 (Automatic Encryption Standard-256) protection. Other safeguards include frequency hopping protocols. The press release continued that the radio can be easily configured via a Bluetooth connection using a smartphone running the Android operating system. Himera-G1 Pro radios can create mobile ad hoc networks for the carriage of voice and data traffic. The Himera-G1 Pro builds upon the Himera-G1 already fielded with Ukrainian forces. Misha Rudominski, Himera’s co-founder, told Armada that the Himera-G1 Pro being offered to the US market “is very much the same product to what we offer in Ukraine … The radio for Ukraine’s defence forces was built over many iterations of testing and feedback from active users on the battlefield.” Louis Sutherland, Reticulate Micro’s senior director for business development, added that the Himera G1 Pro is ideally placed to serve as a squad radio and is “designed in a way to meet the military’s robust voice requirements at a low cost … In general terms, it’s not out of the question for a handheld of another brand to cost between $40,000 and $60,000.” Mr. Sutherland shared that a US Department of Defence (DOD) testing agency has purchased some of the radios for evaluation: “We look forward to the outcome of the testing as it will serve as a bellwether for how other DOD users will receive the product … We hope that once the G1 Pro is tested and validated, that there will be opportunities to make squad radios more broadly accessible to the troops who need them.”
by Dr. Thomas Withington
