Test system for Marine Corps

Aeroflex has won a five-year, $47 million contract with the US Marine Corps to supply ground radio maintenance automatic test systems.

The company will supply its latest test platform, the 7200 configurable automated test set (CATS), a commercial off-the-shelf platform for testing software-defined radios, including military tactical radios and other high technology devices.

It combines hardware modules and multi-gigabit/second data buses with component-based plug and play software.

It is based on the common platform architecture that was designed to be compatible with the software communications architecture used by the joint tactical radio system. The set supports testing existing and planned JTRS radio families.

Its baseline configuration is standard with:

• 90 MHz instantaneous digitisation and signal generation bandwidth;
• Better than -108 dBc/Hz phase noise capability;
• 2.6 GHz frequency coverage;
• Automated test execution optimisation providing minimised test times;
• Robust packaging to meet MIL-PRF-28800F Class 3;
• Real-time computation power;
• Extensions and optional capabilities available.

The test platform will be adopted for testing new digital and legacy radio systems. In addition to testing software-defined radios and modules such as JTRS, the 7200 CATS can test radar, avionics and many other devices.