Ralph White

Ralph White, vice president of General Dynamics C4 Systems.

Ralph White is General Manager of VertexRSI's Richardson, Texas, facility where the terminals are being produced. "Since Ka-band operation is three to five years in the future, the immediate need for highly mobile satellite communications can be met by using Ku-band terminals," White said. "Ku-band is an industry-standard operating frequency that provides reliable high performance, and at the same time is offered by a large number of satellite providers world-wide. Ku-band R/F components are also readily available at very reasonable prices. Minimizing size and weight was a major design driver for our terminals, so the VertexRSI Satcom-on-the-Move terminal is mounted under a protective dome that protrudes from the top of the vehicle by about two feet," he said.

"TriPoint Global designed the terminal for compatibility with Ka-band when that frequency becomes the standard," White added. "The units are designed to provide a very straight-forward migration to Ka-band when the satellites and other infrastructure are ready in future years."

"Antenna positioning and control is the main challenge of a fully functional SOTM TM system," White said, "And TriPoint Global's VertexRSI-Richardson, Texas Facility has a long history of designing and manufacturing high performance antenna control systems for military and commercial use."