Abstract :
The UK military has available a number of tactical satcom terminal types to support long range communication requirements. Current tactical terminals fall into mobile, transportable and manpack equipment. Their design is determined by the operational requirement, data throughput, frequency band, capabilities of the supporting satellites and current technology. UK military satcom terminals operate at UHF (240-320 MHz) and SHF (8/7 GHz) with use of civil satcoms (mainly Inmarsat) to supplement military needs in operations other than war (e.g. humanitarian and peacekeeping). New terminals are currently under procurement (e.g. UK/PSC504 Manpack, UK/TSC503 Transportable UK/VSC501 Mobile Enhancement) to enhance the communications capability of the UK military and further terminals are planned. The future trends are quite diverse ranging from technology improvements through to new architectures allowing flexible system implementation. Increasingly satcom terminals are being seen as part of the wider system incorporating the space segment, ground segment and terrestrial routing rather than just pure terminal projects. The growth in civil satcom technologies such as personal satcoms will allow more options in meeting the diverse military communications needs
