The Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) will be enhancing communications capabilities onboard its fleet of CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft by way of several of its equipment suppliers. The MDM9000 satellite modem, designed and manufactured by Newtec, has been selected by General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada for use on the Canadian Aurora fleet as part of its Aurora Incremental Modernization Project Block IV upgrades.
The CP-140 Aurora aircraft are used over land and sea for a wide range of applications, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. The fleet, which helps patrol Canada and North America, will be improved through the addition of the MDM9000 ruggedized airborne modems, which are capable of high-data-rate (HDR) and beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) communications between an aircraft and the DND ground network using DVB-S2X and S2 waveforms.
The modems are compliant with DO-160 and MIL-STD-810E standards and will contribute to superior communications capabilities on Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite constellations. They operate at L-band transmit and receive frequencies and can achieve rates to 133 Mbaud. An airborne MDM9000 modem communications with a similar unit on the ground.
