David J. Barton
Courtesy of Shephard
Cubic Defense Applications has won a $3.7 million contract from Northrop Grummanto manufacture a new multiband digital data link system for the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, the company announced Tuesday.
Robert Kalebaugh, Cubic's senior director of business development said the new data link system for the unmanned helicopter is much smaller than it used to be which saves on fuel, makes flying longer missions possible, and makes the device easier for ground troops to transport.
The new system is designed with a radio frequency technology hosted on open standard waveforms to transfer full-motion video and data from Fire Scout to ground forces and surface ships, providing situational awareness at any stage of a combat operation.
David S. Miller, Cubic's Fire Scout program director, said its data link systems are expected to deliver timely data transfer and allow warfighters to carry out simultaneous missions.
The data link system features Cubic's smaller multiband miniature transceiver that enables simultaneous Ku band and C band transitions through dual data streams.
