Skynet. Quite simply the highest powered commercial X-band satcom
Astrium Services offers secure X-band satcom to military and government customers through the Skynet 5 constellation, the highest powered commercially available X-band satcom in orbit and were built to support the most challenging missions.
Astrium Services’ X-band and Skynet satcom system has unique features which make it ideal for COCOMS and Special Forces operations.
The benefits of X-band satcom are suited to meet the demanding requirements of the military environment; however it is the key features of the Skynet 5 system which makes it the most powerful commercially available X-band available to date.
Skynet 5 has been designed specifically to support smaller, low powered, tactical terminals deployed across multiple theatres of operation, with the highest powered satellite transponders of any military satellite in orbit or currently in manufacture.
A unique feature of the Skynet 5 series satellites is the control they offer to the operator and the power available to the end-user, thanks to the combination of the multi-beam switching capabilities and the anti-jamming phased array antenna which delivers shaped, high gain footprints.
Each Skynet satellite has global, zone and spot (theatre) downlink beams which can be cross connected to meet dynamic operational needs, optimising the link budgets for the different terminal sizes under a given beam. Coverage beams and satellites can be fully overlapped to produce highly concentrated EIRP over targeted zones and the high power TWTAs on Skynet 5 are specifically designed for small disadvantaged military terminals.
The On Board Active Receive Antenna (OBARA) enables multiple uplink beams to be formed across the global coverage region of each satellite. This enables bespoke tailoring of the uplink beam pattern to optimise link budgets, and critically Skynet can shape beams around sources of interference, providing a unique anti-jamming capability.
This combination of uplink shaping and high power downlink steering enables Skynet to meet military command and control requirements in a way no other satellite constellation can match.
Skynet 5 satellites offer unprecedented levels of payload and coverage flexibility, providing high power X-band satcom exactly where they are needed most.
- 2.6GHz of X-band satcom bandwidth
- Coverage extended from 178 ˚W to 135 ˚E
Skynet’s X-band and UHF frequencies are compliant to NSA and NATO STANAG. Headquarted in the UK, Astrium Services’ X-band teleports are the only commercially operated teleports built to NATO standards and are MAC 1 compliant.
