Sunday, February 24, 2013

ViaSat passes FAA, International Certification for Ka-band mobile satellite system

ViaSat has a good reason to celebrate as its VR-12 Ka-band satellite antenna system successfully passed the industry standard DO-160G testing, meeting FAA and international regulations for electrical equipment integrated on commercial aircraft. The standard is applicable to all aircraft, from business and commercial jets, helicopters and general aviation, to civilian aircraft altered for government use.

Along with ViaSat’s mobile satellite modem, the VR-12 Ka-band antenna system delivers high data rates and Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) airborne satellite communications for bandwidth intensive applications. These include military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) over commercial and military Ka-band frequencies. Results of an earlier flight test included successful simultaneous transmission of high-definition video, video teleconferencing, VoIP applications, as well as Internet at aircraft-to-satellite transmission rates of up to 10 Mbps.

In a company statement, ViaSat Global Mobile Broadband Systems Vice President and General Manager Paul Baca said: “We designed the VR-12 Ka system to be a form and fit interchange with its Ku-band counterpart [VR-12 Ku]. Customer experience has shown that an antenna swap is possible with a simple flight line maintenance action, allowing for a very quick adaptation of the aircraft BLOS communications capabilities to meet the mission requirements.”

The next couple of weeks will see the shipment of ViaSat’s VR-12 Ka-band satellite antenna system.