Datalinks for interceptor drones and counter-UAS cueing
Faster, jet-powered attack drones shrink the time defenders have, and each interceptor is still flown alone over a one-pilot, one-drone link. Reach carries the radar cue and the mid-course track updates to interceptors on one shared channel, so they can share one picture and work as a group, even under jamming.
Key results
- 81 km at 143 kbps from 0.1 W at 915 MHz, with frequency hopping
- 237/240 bursts decoded at speeds up to 220 m/s (idealised pilots)
- 60 interceptors on one broadcast channel at 2 updates/s, each update sent 4 times to survive a jammer about 6–9× the signal
- 3% of a 915 MHz channel used by ten track updates a second
Phases 1 (cueing) and 2 (mid-course) ride on Reach; the terminal phase belongs to the onboard camera, not the radio. A hypothetical application; simulated.
Configuration: MTF Reach. Sector: Counter-UAS. Source: MTFComm system study, September–October 2026; simulated results.
The detailed brief is available on request: request a technical briefing. More: all system studies, how MTF works, plain-text summary.