Defence ARPA buys laser tech worth $11.4 mn

CAMPBELL, US: AOptix Technologies, Inc., a developer of ultra-high bandwidth laser communication solutions, announced  the recent award of a $11.4 million contract to deliver wireless air and ground optical terminals for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Free Space Optical Experimental Network Experiment (FOENEX) program.

Under subcontract to Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL), AOptix will build and flight-validate their Free Space Optical (FSO) terminals at up to 10Gbps and 200 kilometers on various aircraft as well as static ground stations.

The FOENEX program will span twenty months with multiple phases of air-to-air and air-to-ground flight validations. The objectives of the program will be field testing of a high-bandwidth communications systems, integrating FSO and radio frequency (RF) technology in a full mesh network. These hybrid FSO and RF link systems are designed to exploit the high capacity and long range of FSO, relieve the congestion of RF networks and enable data transmission under extreme environmental conditions. Working together to switch seamlessly between FSO and RF, this communication system will provide the capability to relay and downlink high volume ISR data traffic in real-time.

“This program will build on years of successful flight test programs where AOptix has delivered a number of firsts in bandwidth and distance for FSO communications” says Dean Senner, president and CEO of AOptix. “We’re working very hard with our partners to deploy ultra-high bandwidth solutions, bringing on-line, real-time, sensor data communications capabilities to enable warfighter operations.”

The AOptix wireless bi-directional optical terminals utilize a unique patented, single aperture, adaptive optics method of beam control to compensate for real-time atmospheric turbulence while maintaining lock between two terminals. Video, voice and data is transmitted through the air over an infrared, low power, FSO laser link.