Innovative protected transmission test on satellites in orbit

14/01/14

Boeing first experimented with new anti-jamming technology on an old military satellite, expanding access to secure communications.

In the test, conducted on December 15, a secure signal developed for the US government was sent through a Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS-6) satellite. The engineers would confirm the achievement of all objectives in terms of accuracy and signal strength. The demonstration follows an earlier ViaSat-1 commercial satellite experiment from July, demonstrating that the new technology offers opportunities for anti-jamming communications using pre-existing commercial and government satellites.

"This technology increases the ability of fighters to send protected information without enemy interference by leveraging already available satellites that have no anti-jamming resources," said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems. 'The two demonstrations show that this technique is adaptable and capable of being exploited without the need to build new satellites.'

For both tests, the signal was sent using a commercial modem.

Source: Boeing - Space & Intelligence Systems