The French defence procurement agency, DGA, has successfully completed flight trials of the Thales Antares-LP (“low profile”) active array satcom antenna. The trails were performed using a prototype antenna installed on a testbed aircraft at Cazaux in southwest France.

According to Thales, the tests, which were conducted in real-world conditions, clearly demonstrated the performance of the miniaturised Ka-band technology and its compatibility with aircraft operations.

The Antares-LP antenna operates in the Ka frequency band using sovereign and/or commercial satellites. It is designed to provide high-throughput satellite communication solutions to meet aircraft connectivity requirements and maintain communications in isolated theatres, using a special beam-forming technique developed by Thales.

Thales says its low-profile active antenna facilitates integration on the aircraft, makes the product more resilient and delivers improved connectivity performance in the air.

Antares-LP is one of a family of Thales airborne communication satellite terminals for UAVs, helicopters and mission aircraft. They feature automatic satellite transmission, acquisition, and tracking, and are compatible with a wide range of modems.