Vanu was awarded the development contract from the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) in June of 2004. The system was demonstrated to a group of high ranking U.S. Army and Air Force officials at Ft. Dix in April of 2005.

The prototype extends the capabilities of Vanu's Anywave Base Station to address the mobility and encryption required to support dismounted soldiers on the battlefield.

The complete Anywave GSM system, which runs on standard commercial off-the-shelf servers and RF equipment, offers a significantly smaller footprint than is required by traditional GSM solutions.

This enables the complete Anywave GSM system to be installed in the back of a standard military Humvee. A Globalstar satellite link enables communications to be maintained while the vehicle is moving; up to 30 Type 1 secure handsets are supported over a 3-5 mile range.

"The unique combination of the Vanu Anywave Base Station and Globalstar's satellite backhaul capability have demonstrated leading edge technology that has far reaching impact not only for the US Army, but for commercial use as well," said Tony Navarra, President, Global Operations for Globalstar.

Mr. Navarra added, "We are pleased to work with Vanu in developing solutions that enable the use of standard wireless communications equipment in areas where terrestrial coverage is not available and to help protect our soldiers on the battlefield."

The system includes the ability to remotely monitor and manage the network enabling users to be added or deleted if the phones become lost or damaged. The use of omni-directional satellite antennas that do not require manual alignment enables zero setup time and rapid deployment.

"The demonstration for the U.S. Army consisted of two Humvees with Anywave Base Stations and Globalstar satellite links, and a tactical operations center, demonstrating various operational scenarios," said John Winn, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Vanu.

"The Anywave GSM system is finding its way into a variety of government and military programs where portable, flexible communications systems built on commercially available hardware speeds development and deployment times to the field. Similar systems have been deployed for airborne and other terrestrial applications."

Planned enhancements to the secure mobile base station include reducing the footprint, ruggedizeing the system, and integrating a 900 MHz front end for more effective in-building penetration, while developing other system functions such as netted-voice group calling for a more comprehensive solution.

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