Defense Technology

US Army to Spend $440 Million on Inflatable SATCOM Antennae

Defense Update: The key innovation of GATR’s antenna is a flexible parabolic dish mounted within an inflatable sphere, reducing weight and packaged volume by as much as 80 percent and thereby improving the agility of deployed military and disaster response personnel. According to GATR, their ISA antenna costs less to procure than conventional deployable SATCOM antennae systems, and dramatically cuts transportation expenses due to its lightweight design. Finally, the larger dish size enables more efficient use of satellite bandwidth capacity, increasing bandwidth for users and allowing more users to communicate simultaneously. GATR currently supports 1.2, 1.8 and 2.4 meter diameter sphere dishes. These antennas perform like rigid deployable antennas of the same size, but provide significant reduction in the logistical size and weight.

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