Thales awarded U.S. DoD contract for spectrum deconfliction

Thales and Ultra Electronics Advanced Tactical Systems have been awarded a U.S. General Services Administration contract to deliver an upgraded version of the aging Department of Defense (DOD) Link-16 Pulse Deconfliction Server (LPDS), Thales announced February 18. Under this award, Thales will provide the software solution for spectrum supervision where tactical data is transmitted in airspace occupied by military and/or civilian aircraft.

Thales’ Web Reference Architecture is the selected software solution that will enable these LPDS capabilities and it is planned for delivery in May 2016. This innovative software solution also supports the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s command, control, communications, and computers/cyber capabilities (J6) and joint warfighter (J7) directorates. The solution will supply U.S. Armed Forces, Canadian Forces and foreign U.S. possessions with enhanced capabilities to enable better scheduling of Link-16 operations in accordance with current spectrum certification restrictions. These enhancements include time slot duty factors, interference protection feature settings, and power usage by the Link-16 terminal radios and supporting systems.

The LPDS supports the critical mission of ensuring that planned U.S. military activities and their subsequent tactical communications do not interfere with or disrupt non-military or foreign/coalition forces operating within certain areas of responsibility. Under Federal Aviation Administration mandates for U.S. airspace and U.S. airspace possessions the DOD must ensure frequency spectrum deconfliction scheduling be complete prior to authorizing Link-16 transmissions.

The U.S. military operates over 15,000 Link-16 terminals to share the common tactical picture across the forces for air, land, maritime and special operations during combat training operations.

Thales looks forward to delivering this software solution to the U.S. military and remains committed to providing U.S. and coalition forces with the most affordable, best-in-class solutions on the market.

Source: Thales