No fears of causing a crash by using your cellphone while the Eagle UAV is flying – the IAI/EADS unmanned air vehicle uses one of the most sophisticated radio control systems in the world, built by Israel's Tadiran Spectralink (Stand A843).
Avi Peleg, Tadiran Spectralink's vice-president, sales, explains that its data link system is designed to be virtually impossible to track or jam.
"Spectralink uses sophisticated methods to make it very secure. It can frequency hop and use spread spectrum techniques to keep its digital signal very secure. It can also operate anywhere from UHF through to the Ku-band satellite band, which also makes it very flexible. Full error correction means the UAV receives exactly what was sent from the ground and vice versa."
Although the exact configuration is classified, it can be reported that the display Eagle UAV is using a 4 GHz (C-band) datalink that can handle data, video, control and other digital signals and is being controlled from a high-security location close to the airshow.
In real-life situations, Spectralink would give it a maximum range from its base station of about 250km (150 miles). Beyond line of sight (LoS) operation would be possible using secure satellite links. "You can also set up an airborne data relay (ADR) onboard another UAV or C-130," says Peleg. "This would extend the maximum range to about 500km."
Connection
The ground station and Eagle antenna are both directional so they can track each other if need be. Typical bandwidths are between 5-10Mbps – that's about 200-400 times better than a dial-up modem and 10-20 times better than a broadband connection.
Peleg says it's possible to get very good TV pictures via Spectralink with only 2Mbps, so there is plenty of spare capacity. "The UAVs are so resistant to interference that 10 of them could fly wingtip-to-wingtip and still be under individual control. Yet the radio unit within the UAV can be less than 2in (5cm) square and weigh less than 300g," Peleg says.
Tadiran has 90,000h accumulated flight experience with UAVs and is the sole source supplier of data link equipment to the US Navy Pioneer Programme and has active experience in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Somalia.
Source: Flight Daily News
