The Sky's No Longer the Limit

The U.S. Air Force is on the verge of benefiting from game-changing levels in resilient connectivity following the successful completion of L3Harris Technologies' latest demonstration with industry partners.

In November 2021, L3Harris demonstrated its Broadband Resilient Aerial Interoperable Network (BRAIN ) capability to the Air National Guard - the third time the company's High Capacity Backbone (HCB) solution has been demonstrated to the Air Force since August 2021. Further demonstrations are planned over the course of 2022.

Illustrating how warfighters can benefit from a network with extended levels of Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) connectivity and secure processing speeds during air operations, the L3Harris demonstration employed a variety of mature technologies to ensure data throughput up to 600 Mbps - the equivalent of streaming 24 4K Ultra-high-definition movies - simultaneously and without interruption.

Key enabling technologies included Ku-band Satellite Communications (SATCOM); Active Electronically Steered Antenna (AESA) apertures to connect to multiple platforms; the Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW); and machine-learning algorithms.

What is HCB? High Capacity Backbone delivers open mission system and open communications system capabilities required for Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) networks using industry-standard hardware, according to Ron Fehlen, L3Harris vice president of Air Force programs.

BRAIN provides warfighters a WiFi-like network bubble with resilient, scalable and high-throughput communications at the tactical edge as well as in contested environments. Fehlen likened the technology to a personal WiFi network, where one can automatically connect to the internet - and to nearby, accessible networks when needed - and share data with others on the same network.

LINK:	https://www.l3harris.com/newsroom/editorial/2022/05/skys-no-longer-lim...
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