Situational Awareness For Emergency Services
Affordable SATCOM for Tactical UAS for Group 3 Platforms
A tactical UAS operator required an ultralightweight, affordable SATCOM capability to enable Command & Control (C2), telemetry, first-person view (FPV), and basic sensor video relay. The target platforms were small Group 3 UAVs with extremely limited payload capacity and tight cost constraints.
Challenge
- These smaller tactical UAVs were not originally designed with SATCOM in mind
- Traditional systems were too large, too heavy, and too expensive relative to the aircraft’s total cost
- Operators required a solution that fit within strict Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) limits while remaining budget conscious
- The system also needed to support essential mission data at very low data rates
Solution
SD Government (SDG) delivered an ultracompact L-band SATCOM solution built around a lightweight 430 g terminal supporting ~200 kbps. The system used adaptive video compression to relay usable sensor video over extremely low bandwidth and was offered through a cost-efficient pooled data plan shared across the fleet.
Key Solution Components
UltraLightweight SATCOM Terminal
- Minimal SWaP design optimized for Group 3 platforms
Adaptive Video Compression
- Automatically adjusts video quality to maintain performance over low data rates
FleetWide Managed Service Plan
- Flexible pooled airtime reduces operating costs and simplifies budget planning