Stand by for broadband - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Stand by for broadband

The days of sluggish or nonexistent Internet connections aboard surface ships are about to go away, the Navy said, thanks to a new satellite connection that promises to give every surface sailor the ability to surf the Web at broadband speed.

A new satellite antenna, now being tested aboard the Ingleside, Texas-based mine countermeasure ship Champion, gives the crew Web access 10 times faster than its old communications gear, according to officials with Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Over the next six months, 48 other small ships — mine ships, coastal patrols and frigates — will get the same equipment, starting this month. Every ship will be upgraded by 2012.

“It’s a really great upgrade,” said Lt. Cmdr. John Callaway, captain of the Champion’s D-crew. His sailors can check e-mail and surf the Web at sea with about the same speed as a home broadband connection, he said, and for the first time, he can access the classified Defense Department intelligence network, known as SIPRnet.

Two Champion sailors said the Web speeds have made a huge difference in their quality of life on deployment.

Operations Specialist Seaman Apprentice Edward Higuera said he could view Web videos in Navy Knowledge Online courses much easier with the new connectivity, and that it was much simpler to do research for the college classes he’s taking at sea. He also said it was much easier to keep in touch with his family and generally keep tabs on news in the U.S., especially the presidential election.

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Laurence Zeller described how the expanded bandwidth made it possible to even view Web sites with complicated photos and graphics — including the Navy’s own site, Navy.mil, and information sites such as FoxNews.com or ESPN.com. What’s more, the Champion’s new satellite antenna means the ship can get more satellite coverage, even in rough seas, when the motion of the ship made the older antenna break its link with the satellite.

When sailors have consistent access to their e-mail, news sites and information for education, there’s a noticeable difference, Zeller said.

“Happy sailors make efficient sailors. There’s a calm about the ship,” Zeller said, and Callaway agreed.

There were no time restrictions on using the Web.

The Navy is making this happen by leasing bandwidth from civilian providers. To be sure, commanders aren’t lifting the restrictions imposed by the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, which blocks Web-based e-mail, social networking and video-sharing sites, among others. And individual ships will continue to impose their own restrictions, as when a captain sets condition “River City” and stops all communications off a ship, or sets times when sailors are prohibited from getting on the Web.

But the new satellite antennas do mean that the days of slow Web surfing at sea are over. Higuera remembered losing the Internet for several days, forcing him to put aside his studies until he could get reconnected. He said that above all, the reliability was his favorite new feature.

The new broadband access is part of a larger Navy plan to upgrade the satellite communications gear aboard all its ships, linking them closer together in keeping with today’s Pentagon philosophies of network-based combat. Rather than the five varieties of satellite antennas now in the fleet, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command wants to maintain just two.

The two systems are the Commercial Broadband Satellite Program — the one carried by the Champion — and the Navy Multiband Terminal, which will provide a new secure satellite link for ships’ combat systems.

The Navy’s initial plan is for “bandwidth-disadvantaged” small ships — including frigates, mine countermeasure ships and coastal patrol ships — to be first getting the new satellite antennas, SpaWar spokesman Steve Davis said. Technicians will install different models based on each ship’s primary operating environment. For example, one version will be designed for use close to shore, as aboard a coastal patrol ship, and another will be designed for the open ocean. The Navy will install about 200 terminals on ships throughout the fleet, with the work scheduled to be complete by December 2012.

The small-ship variant antenna, such as the Champion’s, gives the ship about 881 kilobytes per second, according to SpaWar. The next-size antenna, which will be carried aboard smaller amphibious ships, destroyers and cruisers, provides 3.6 Mbps. The largest-size antenna, designed for big-deck gators and aircraft carriers, gives 21.4 megabytes per second. By comparison, a typical home cable connection is around 4 or 5 megabytes per second, although newer fiber-optic services can be faster.

The small ships are scheduled to get their antennas by the spring. Cruisers, destroyers and smaller amphibs will begin to get theirs by the middle of 2009, with big-deck amphibs and carriers coming afterward. The Navy plans to issue the contract for the rest of the small-ship antennas model in October. It’s expected to be initially worth about $1.2 million, according to information provided by Davis. Over five years, the maximum value is $13 million. Although work is scheduled to be finished before the contracts are up, the Navy could continue buying the antennas into the fifth year if there are delays.

The initial contract for the medium-sized antenna, awarded in June, was about $17.5 million and could have a total value of $77 million. The initial large antenna contract, awarded in May, was about $15 million with a projected total value of about $85 million.

A ship’s IT department routes the data bandwidth through a network device that lets commanders decide how much connectivity is used for different applications.

The ship doesn’t have enough bandwidth to set up live Webcams, as service members often use when they’re deployed ashore overseas, nor is it likely that sailors at sea can use Internet voice services such as Skype. And although the CBSP antenna works well once it establishes a connection with the satellite, it’s tricky to get it to establish the connection, Zeller said.

Still, Champion sailors said the positives far outweighed the early hiccups.

“Once the bugs are worked out, this thing is going to be extremely popular,” Zeller said.