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system is also permitted by international agreement, provided the use is for peaceful purposes. This system could thus be used for disaster relief, evacuations and similar operations. Other commercial SATCOM systems are also available. Light weight transportable earth stations are available commercially.
c. Prior to Operation GRANBY the UK Military Satellite Communication System (UKMSCS) was reliant on a single satellite ground station (SGS) at RAF Oakhanger. Το provide some limited operational alternative the ground station facility at RSRE Defford was expanded under Urgent Operational Requirement arrangements. Provision of a fully diversified ground segment for SKYNET 4 (SR(SLA)1595) is proceeding and is scheduled to be in service by early 1994. The facilities provided
SR (SLA) 1595 are geographically separated and consist of 2 operation facilities, 2 network control centres, 3 SGS and 3 large capacity transportable ground terminals which can be rapidly deployed to emergency and pre-planned
covert locations.
d. All three Services and SF have a range of mobile terminals tailored to meet their operational requirements. The RN predominantly use the SCOT series of terminals which will be fitted in all frigates and above by 1997. SCOT will be capable of providing secure telegraph, as well as a combination of secure speech and data circuits dependent on the introduction of the Universal Modem in 1995. The Army's terminal to support OOA operations prior to Operation GRANBY was the TSC 502. This limited capacity terminal is capable of providing either one high quality secure speech and 4 telegraph channels or 2 low quality secure speech/data circuits and 6 telegraph channels, depending on configuration. It has
now reached the end of its useful life and is to be
replaced by the TSC 503. It is intended that the TSC 503 will have sufficient capacity to carry 4 high quality secure speech circuits which can be multiplexed to carry secure facsimile or a mixture of data and low speed
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