The COTM SATCOM terminals will initially be used by the United States Army in proof-of-concept exercises and, later, fielded into an operational theater. The purchase culminates successful demonstrations conducted and evaluated by the JSIC.

During those COTM demonstrations, L-3's antenna system never lost contact with the satellite, and successfully illustrated the capability to provide a variety of uninterrupted communication services including, secure telephone Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), two-way Video Teleconferencing (VTC) using "Netmeeting", two-way InfoWorkSpace (IWS) collaboration and "whiteboarding", and open internet browsing while moving over rough terrain.

"This initial antenna system acquisition is of a limited quantity," said Ron Gorda, president of L-3's Information Products Division.

"Its importance, however, lies in the validation of antenna pointing and tracking technologies that will equip warfighters with high-data rate, beyond-line-of-sight connectivity, in an off-road, on-the-move environment. All of these are likely to be instrumental in the achievement of true Network Centric Operations capability."

L-3's Information Products Division designed and developed the antenna and tracking system, while base band and Human Machine Interface (HMI) elements were provided by other manufacturers.

In a related development, L-3's Ku Band COTM antenna system has also recently received an experimental Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to operate in a non-spread mode anywhere in the continental United States.

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