On March 23, San Diego, CA-based Cubic Corporation announced Nuvotronics, which operates within its Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions (CMPS) business division was awarded a contract worth approximately $5 million to develop a Wideband Global Satellite Surrogate Payload (WGS-SP) for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) C5ISR Center and Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD). Nuvotronics will deliver a high-altitude balloon (HAB) payload solution to support WGS surrogate operations, intended to provide contingency communication support during “a day without SATCOM” scenarios.
“Cubic has a long history of developing innovative solutions that address network availability and resiliency in challenged environments for our warfighters,” said Mike Knowles, president of Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions. “With our award-winning Nuvotronics technology, we are able to provide a viable surrogate payload solution with a true size, weight and power (SWaP) advantage.”
Nuvotronics’ HAB payload solution will support Ka-Band SATCOM for beyond line of sight (BLOS) communications between Division, Brigade, Battalion and Company echelons during electronic or kinetic attacks. During electronic or kinetic attack, SATCOM accessibility may be denied, which creates a need for the Army to have access to alternative capabilities that can effectively restore tactical communications and operate in denied environments.
“We are very pleased to collaborate with the CCDC C5ISR Center and S&TCD to develop a solution that will provide transparent BLOS SATCOM access to existing WGS Ka-Band ground terminals within a region that has been denied access to on-orbit WGS resources,” said Martin Amen, vice president and general manager of Cubic Nuvotronics.
Nuvotronics’ HAB surrogate payload solution will introduce key innovations based on proven technology and processes, including its unique and innovative additive manufacturing process called PolyStrata® which enables radio frequency component size reductions from 10x to 100x. PolyStrata also significantly improves radio frequency performance, which will allow Nuvotronics to meet more stringent requirements that would not otherwise be possible.
Source: Cubic
By Loren Blinde
March 23, 2021
