www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4035340&c=FEA&s=TEC -
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Published on: 4/13/2009
Last Visited: 4/14/2009
MobiLink will turn Army vehicles into "an Internet oasis on wheels," said Nelson Santini, a Datapath vice president for sales and marketing.
Not only will the vehicle be capable of receiving and sending large amounts of digital data in a variety of formats, it will also serve as wireless communications hubs that other nearby vehicles and ground troops can tap into to gain access to communications via satellites, Santini said.
The intent is to get as much information as possible as soon as possible to troops on the battlefield who need it, he said.
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It triangulates the three and a motor keeps the antenna properly oriented, Santini explained.
So even at high speeds or rocking and rolling along a dirt desert track, MobiLink would enable an MRAP conducting a convoy, for example, to maintain the broadband connection needed to receive a video feed from UAVs flying ahead to search for ambushes or freshly planted roadside bombs.
Vehicles equipped with Mobi-Link could also serve as mobile command-and-control centers that can receive intelligence, conduct video conferences, offer voice-over-Internet communications and provide access to the military's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), Datapath says.
The idea is to compress the time between when troops receive intelligence and when they can act on it, Santini said.
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So MobiLink is intended to augment, not replace, current stop-and-transmit systems - at least not yet, Santini said.
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Santini said each of the eight units being delivered to the Army will cost $100,000 to $120,000.
That puts it in the same price range as current systems that require vehicles to halt in order to link to satellites, he said.