Comtech Mobile Datacom’s new Blue Force Tracking High Capacity (BFT-HC) system could be ready for military operations as early as this summer, with a rollout target that coincides with the buildup of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, said Dan Wood, the unit’s president.
    Comtech is one of several companies competing for the U.S. Army contract to supply next-generation Blue Force systems to combat personnel, and Wood, a military combat veteran, said upgrades to the system are long overdue. The satellite transceiver and network components of the initial Blue Force tracking design were designed largely for commercial applications. U.S. military combat logisticians then fielded the technology as a movement tracking system. Prior to the conflict in Iraq, the forward link and return link data rates, which averaged 2.6 kilobits per second (kbps), were considered state-of-the-art and sufficient as the military used Blue Force to augment its line-of-site HF radio system.
     “A couple of years ago, the U.S. military started outlining their data rate needs to meet standards in order to download pictures or maps quickly over the link. In that specification they had laid out, they had asked for a forward link of about 130 kilobits per second,” said Wood. “… The initial speed of Blue Force was like a Chinese water torture for us military officers who were accustomed to our broadband connections at home. For some operations, combat aircraft need to be able to do a 60 degree turn in under a second without losing a link with the satellite with an antenna that is as solid-state and software driven as possible.”
    Catering to these extreme conditions had an influence on developing BFT-HC down a slightly different path than competitors, Wood said. “BFT-HC is not just a satellite transceiver, it’s a three-part system. It’s the transceiver plus the ground station and then the network backbone, which delivers a worldwide telecommunications infrastructure operating over a network of several different commercial L-band providers, including Inmarsat, SkyTerra, Artimus, Thuraya, AceS and Optus.”
    Comtech’s project, which does not use mobile satellite vehicles, involves upgrades to all three parts of the infrastructure, from digital signal processors to adaptive multi-user detection products. “This system takes advantage of and maximizes the existing infrastructure, which is key. The systems that we’re announcing … are also being deployed today as we speak. Since the BFT-HC is completely backwards compatible, even the legacy systems are able to utilize the advantages of the network,” said Wood.
    Some of the upgrades also may find their way to customers outside of the U.S. military, said Wood. “I look at my adaptive multi-user detection product and the return link capacity that we have as a much needed products and could be competitive with international terrestrial providers,” he said. “For example, our Optus customers in Australia are already familiar with this technology. They adopted Blue Force tracking systems several years ago through a joint agreement with the U.S. military. They’re using the same satellite transceivers and equipment, which we are providing to them to operate over L-band off of the Optus vehicle.”
    Comtech completed military demonstrations of BFT-HC throughout 2008 and expects “should be delivering about 50 prototypes spread across May, July and then some final prototypes in October,” Wood said. “When we deliver these prototypes to the customer, we will have completed all of our own internal testing and prepare the technology for military testing. This summer, the military will then test our system head-to-head with our competitor’s transceiver,” he said.
     One of the systems that Comtech’s BFT-HC is sure to face during military testing is the Blue Force Tracking 2 (BFT2) system from ViaSat. The company has made progress in developing its Blue Force Tracking upgrade for the U.S. Army, said Ric Vandermeulen, the company’s director of government broadband.
    The BFT2 upgrade, in development since April 2007 and scheduled to be released in 2010, uses ViaSat’s ArcLight technology to improve situational awareness by increasing the number of messages transmitted per minute and making better use of satellite resources to allow a greater number of users per channel.
    The U.S. government is pleased with the system’s speed and financial efficiency, Vandermeulen said. “From a space segment capacity standpoint, we have been told by the U.S. government that we are eight times more cost efficient.”