US Navy invests in new satellite communications technology

Cobham Satcom will supply its Sailor XTR terminals for secure and fast satellite communications over Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) constellation to naval ships in the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command’s (MSC) next-generation wideband service.

Inmarsat will upgrade the primary MSC afloat network from Ku-band VSAT to its GX Ka-band service under a 10-year follow-on contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

The London-headquartered group selected Cobham Satcom as its user terminal partner to implement a fast-track roll-out of the new services. All existing Ku-band user terminals on MSC vessels will be replaced with customised 1-m Sailor 1000 XTR and 60-cm Sailor 600 XTR Ka-band VSAT terminals, starting February 2023.

These terminals were designed to be compatible with Inmarsat’s second-generation GX-R2 high-power requirements and for the upcoming GX satellites.

Inmarsat is investing in its satellite network with the next launch scheduled for March 2023 when the second sixth-generation satellite (GX6B) will be placed in orbit. It has three more Global Xpress Ka-band satellites (GX7, GX8 and GX9), to launch and two payloads (GX10A and B) on highly elliptical orbit satellites by 2025.