Oct. 23, 2013
Raytheon Company has
completed production on 39 new terminals for the
U.S. Army ahead of schedule. Since production
began in 2007, 67 percent have been deployed to
the field.
The Army uses the
Humvee-mounted Secure Mobile Anti-Jam Reliable
Tactical Terminal (SMART-T) to pass secure data
to legacy Milstar satellites. The terminals have
been upgraded to communicate with the
higher-bandwidth AEHF satellites, the Department
of Defense's primary system to provide highly
protected satellite communications.
International partners
Canada and
the Netherlands also employ the
AEHF terminals.
The upgrade to AEHF,
completed more than a year ahead of schedule,
quadruples capacity while increasing security.
The advanced version incorporates the military's
eXtended Data Rate (XDR) waveform, enabling
tactical military communications such as
real-time video, battlefield mapping and
targeting data.
"SMART-T gives the
Army a decided edge in securely transmitting
battlefield information," said
Scott Whatmough,
vice president of Integrated Communication
Systems in Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems
business.
To train soldiers more
effectively on SMART-T, the Army contracted with
Raytheon to provide new equipment training at
the company's
Largo, Fla., facility,
consolidating production, training and fielding
in one location. It was the first time in Army
history that a weapons system had a training
facility embedded with a production plant. It is
expected to save more than
$9 million by
reducing the logistical footprint of production,
training and fielding terminals, according to
the Army.
