Intelsat General Communications LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intelsat, S.A. has launched FlexAir, a managed end-to-end service providing cost-effective performance, in-flight broadband connectivity to a wide range of military aircraft to support en route communications and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) applications.
FlexAir’s broadband service utilises Intelsat’s global Ku-band satellite fleet and integrates layers of high-throughput satellite (HTS) coverage from the company’s proven Intelsat EpicNG fleet with the company’s wide-beam satellites to deliver the added redundancy and security needed for the most critical missions. FlexAir also offers committed capacity for ISR applications such as sensor data, video transmission, and communications relay to deliver immediate access at 3 Mbps from the aircraft with optional scalability to 6 Mbps.
Speaking about the launch, Skot Butler, president of Intelsat General said: “FlexAir answers the call and delivers the performance and agility that government aviation requires. With the multi-layered coverage of FlexAir, our government customers can ensure that each aircraft has global access and guaranteed availability whenever or wherever it is needed. The scalability, throughput and improved economies of scale provided by FlexAir enable government users to quickly address changing broadband demands while providing maximum mobility in the most cost-effective manner.”
Guaranteed Availability Whenever and Wherever it is Needed
FlexAir aggregates Intelsat’s high-performing space segment with the IntelsatOne ground infrastructure into a simplified and streamlined ecosystem. It is anchored on industry-leading technology and utilises the redundancy created from a fabric of overlapping beams. As a result, government users are assured coverage and connectivity for any operation, conducted in any area of the world, without interruption.
Intelsat utilises Ku-band, wide beams, spot beams, and frequency reuse technology to provide a host of customer benefits. Intelsat EpicNG, the company’s high-throughput satellites (HTS) can deliver up to 15x more throughput per satellite, ensuring high quality connectivity.
Multiple Intelsat EpicNG spot beams enable a high concentration of power on smaller areas, improving efficiency and the aggregate amount of capacity available. With the bigger channel size of bandwidth going into each Intelsat EpicNG beam, government organizations benefit from up to 10x the capacity of competitive offerings, ensuring that they can support 10x as many users without impacting performance. In addition, FlexAir is designed to be compatible with a wide range of fuselage and tail-mounted antennas, maximizing the performance of carriers for the various end-user antennas.
FlexAir leverages the security enhancements of Intelsat EpicNG’s advanced digital payload. The design of the digital payload enables the user to quickly identify when someone is trying to jam a signal and then quickly switch to a different beam, mitigating any impact from the interference attempt. FlexAir provides additional security as only designated beams with frequency bands carrying authorized signals that are cross-connected and as a result, any interfering signals are muted, analyzed, and mitigated.
In related statements, Intelsat also announced that the service will be marketed actively by COMSAT and L3 Technologies within the government aviation sector.
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