Viasat debuted its new Mercury Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC) terminal designed to support terrestrial, expeditionary applications, including SOCOM use cases.
The Viasat Mercury solution is an expeditionary, high-capacity FSOC link with an automated pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) system, offering military operators lower signature communications at the quick-halt. Mercury is based upon advanced commercial-off-the-shelf technology, leveraging substantial industry investment towards bringing a high-performance, resilient, and cost-effective capability to better support warfighting operations at the edge.
The Viasat FSOC solution will deliver data rates up to 40 Gbps with a range of up to 70 Kilometers (km) for terrestrial applications, and be highly resistant to jamming, spoofing and electro-magnetic interference when compared to RF systems. By leveraging a dual-stage continuous active line-of-sight tracking system, Mercury will be deployable to support multiple expeditionary communications environments including Ground-to-Ground, Ground-to-Air, Ship-to-Ship, and Ship-to-Shore.
“Free Space Optics offers the benefits of fiber optic cable communications without the need to run the cable,” said Craig Miller, president of Viasat Government Systems. “As the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) seeks to gain an advantage through increasingly reliable and low detection communications, we are investing in FSO as part of a resilient multi-transport network. The Mercury terminal is designed as a high-capacity and low-cost solution for the DoD, and this is the first platform for terrestrial use as we continue to invest in comms-on-the-move capabilities across sea, air and space.”
