As part of a wider contract going back to November 2012, the first four Royal Navy Mine Countermeasures Vessels have had their satellite equipment upgraded by Airbus Defence and Space (Astrium)
Four UK Royal Navy Mine Counter Measure Vessels (MCMVs) operating in the Arabian Gulf have been upgraded to state-of-the-art military X-band satellite communications – with more vessels set to follow
Airbus Defence and Space has successfully delivered full operational capabilities for X-band satellite communications – comprising Deployable Maritime Milsat (DMM) satellite services that use the Skynet 5 constellation – to four Royal Navy Mine Counter Measure Vessels (MCMVs) operating in the Arabian Gulf, ahead of equipping additional vessels.
Commanding officers onboard these MCMVs now benefit from full military communications capability at all classification levels, enabling improved operations in bandwidth-hungry ISTAR operations. These services form part of Airbus Defence and Space’s AuroraGlobal portfolio providing integrated satcom solutions, ensuring that vessels are fully connected to the wider maritime coalition network using the latest global IP baseband (GiN) infrastructure.
The equipment is the X Band SCOTPatrol 0.8 that will use the Skynet satellite service.
The balance of the contract will see an additional two vessels equipped, obviously, in our poor as a church mouse times, discussion about upgrading the rest of the fleet are ‘ongoing’
Read more in the datasheet
welcome news but one would have hoped it was something to be rolled out for all vessels without delay.
Not much point in having the worlds most capable satellite communication system if none of our front line commanders can use it.
Lets hope they dont loose this equipment as easily :P
Commonality? What commonality?!