System Issues and Considerations Associated with Design of Ground Mobile Strategic Satellite Communication Terminals

The current national defense doctrine calls for increased use of ground mobile strategic satellite communication earth terminals. This paper discusses some of the key communication terminal system issues and considerations associated with the design of nuclear hardened strategic ground mobile earth terminals. It considers system requirements such as nuclear hardness, rapid mobility, low profile, signal interference resistance, high availability, and long term independent operation. It also discusses impacts and implications associated with these requirements when imposed on a satellite earth terminal. It gives special focus to the ramifications of imposing mobility on earth terminals and its relationship to the system design approach used to arrive at an optimal system solution.