March 27, 2008

Harris Corporation has successfully completed over-the-air certification testing of a new shipboard satellite terminal that can help provide the U.S. Navy with more than 10 times the communications capacity of the predecessor satellite system.

Harris completed over-the-air Ka-band certification testing of its AN/WSC-6 Tri-band shipboard SATCOM terminal using the first Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) system satellite launched in October 2007. The testing was conducted at the Harris NetCentric Testbed facility in Palm Bay, Florida, by personnel from the Space and Missile Defense Command, Army Strategic Command and the Joint Systems Engineering Center. Testing included simulating a ship’s motion consistent with very rough seas, called state 6 conditions.

A dual-band (C/X) version of the terminal, the AN/WSC-6E(V)9, was previously certified for X-band operation in June 2006. The AN/WSC-6E(V)9 terminals have the potential to be upgraded from a dual-band configuration to a tri-band configuration supporting simultaneous X-/Ka-band operations so crew members can take advantage of the significantly increased capacity offered by the WGS constellation.

“The simultaneous dual X/Ka-band capability is key to achieving substantial increases in bandwidth in comparison to single-band terminals," said Wes Covell, president, Harris Defense Programs. "Our AN/WSC-6E(V)9 terminals are already successfully deployed in the Navy’s fleet, and are the first shipboard SATCOM terminals to support simultaneous X/Ka-band operations. The completion of the over-the-air testing is another major milestone in the 10-year history of the Harris AN/WSC-6(V)9 terminal family."