VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., 7 Feb. 2006. Thrane & Thrane, Inc. today announced that it has been awarded a three-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract, with five one-year options, by the Global Air Traffic Systems (GATS) Group for its Aero-I, Aero-HSD+ and future Inmarsat Aeronautical SATCOM terminals.
The contract, known as the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management Product Catalog 1 (CNS/ATM-1), also includes a 10-year warranty, associated annual service agreements, expedited repair services, engineering services and technical data.
Tremendous growth in air traffic has strained the airspace capacity and airport resources for air transport, general aviation and the military. CNS/ATM is designed to take advantage of emerging technologies like Thrane & Thrane's Aero-I, Aero-HSD+ and future Inmarsat Aeronautical SATCOM terminals which are designed to support the communication, navigation and surveillance requirements of the evolving air traffic management system.
Thrane & Thrane's SATCOM systems are fully interoperable with the Future Air Navigation System (FANS 1/A) environment, which enable "free flight" through Controller Pilot Datalink Communications (CPDLC) and Automatic Dependant Surveillance (ADS). The Satellite ACARS Datalink in their Aero-I and Aero-HSD+ SATCOM systems are already in widespread use on a number of aircraft.
"Aircraft equipped with Thrane & Thrane's Aero-I and Aero-HSD+ voice & data-link capable terminals can interoperate in the new ATM environment," said Eric Dahl, Thrane & Thrane's senior aeronautical sales manager for military/government. "With our new CNS/ATM-1 contract, our government customers have a direct, convenient way to acquire our CNS/ATM-1 tailored equipment and airtime services to meet their specialized and mission-critical needs. This represents our company's commitment to the GATS Group mission of providing the US Air Force with CNS/ATM compliant avionics to ensure unrestricted worldwide airspace access."
Thrane & Thrane's contract also includes provisions for Swift64 64Kbps (Aero-HSD+) and aeronautical broadband (SwiftBroadband) IP Data (up to 492 Kbps) channels to support Network Centric Operations on board the aircraft using the same antenna and integrateable avionics, when such services become available. With Swift64 or SwiftBroadband upgrades, multiple passengers can e-mail, surf the Internet and connect with ground-based networks using the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) protocol. Additionally, passengers can retrieve and download large files and e-mail using Packet Data Services. All of this can be done utilizing approved CNS/ATM compliant SATCOM terminals.
Thrane & Thrane, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Thrane & Thrane A/S, the world's leading manufacturer of terminals and land earth stations for global mobile satellite and radio communications. Since its incorporation in 1981, the company has established a strong position within global mobile satellite services based on the Inmarsat system, and today it provides equipment for land-based, maritime and aeronautical use. For more information, see www.thrane.com.
Since 1992 Thrane & Thrane has delivered over 2,500 aeronautical terminals to the military, air transport and general aviation markets. Thrane & Thrane's Aeronautical products provide ACARS packet data, single/multi-channel circuit-mode voice/fax/data services, ISDN and Mobile Packet Data Services (MPDS) capabilities. The Aero-HSD+ system have been manufacture installed on Dassault Falcon Jet and Gulfstream production lines and has been installed on various BizJet's, military and governmental aircraft as retrofit upgrades.
Besides the Aero-HSD+ system, Thrane & Thrane have for many years been producing terminals for various partners in the aeronautical business. Thrane & Thrane started by producing the Aero-C system, which was integrated and sold by Honeywell as their SATAFIS. Later on Thrane & Thrane produced the Aero-M & Aero-I systems that was dual branded and sold by Universal Avionics. Latest Thrane & Thrane developed and manufactured the HS-700 and HS-702 for Honeywell, providing them with the possibility to supply their customers with the latest Swift64 service, providing their customers with high speed data for the first time airborne.
Thrane & Thrane has been chosen by Inmarsat to provide the ground infrastructure for the new I4 satellites, which means that you are insured that our terminals are ready for the future, and that the Aero-HSD+ will be upgradeable for SwiftBroadband (aeronautical broadband), when such services becomes available. The company's aeronautical systems include: the TT-3024A Aero-C for global aircraft tracking and two-way messaging, the single-channel TT-3000M Aero-M for voice, fax and PC modem data and the multi-channel TT-5000 Aero-I for voice, fax, PC modem data and cockpit data as well as the a la carte Aero-HSD+ for voice, fax, cockpit- and High Speed Data.
