| | Submarine Satellite Information Exchange Sub-System (SSIXS) |
| | Primary Purpose | Designed to complement terrestrial Very Low |
| | Frequency/Low Frequency (VLF/LF), and Medium |
| | Frequency/High Frequency (MF/HF) communication |
| | links between shore-based submarine Broadcast |
| | Control Authorities (BCAs) and submarines. Both |
| | General Service (GENSER) and Special Intelligence |
| | (SI) SSIXS are available. |
| | Sub-Functions | Sub-system of the Navy Ultra High Frequency |
| | Satellite Communications System (UHF SATCOM). |
| | Equipment Requirements | Shore based transmission via AN/WSC-5(V) or |
| | AN/WSC-3(v) UHF Transceiver, OM-43A/USC PSK |
| | Modem, AN/FYK-33/FSQ SMART, AN/FYK-29 SSIXS |
| | Processor, SB-4325/FSQ Patch Panel, RD-379B |
| | (V)3/U Recorder-Reproducer, RO-600/U Teleprinter |
| | and KG-84A COMSEC equipment. |
| | Connectivity Requirements | One 25kHz wideband channel in each ocean area is |
| | allocated on FLTSATCOM (FSC) or UHF Follow-on |
| | (UFO) satellites for SSIXS. A single SSIXS |
| | network may have up to 120 submarine subscribers. |
| | A single network may be established on more than |
| | one satellite or two BCAs may share a single |
| | satellite channel by offsetting the time of their |
| | respective Group Broadcast transmissions. |
| | Crypto Requirements | KG-84A. |
| | Normal Locations | All SSN and SSBN submarines. All four BCA sites |
| | and 2 ALT BCA sites: |
| | COMSUBLANT Norfolk, Virginia. |
| | COMSUBPAC Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. |
| | COMSUBGRU SEVEN Yokosuka, Japan. |
| | COMSUBGRU EIGHT Naples, Italy. |
| | COMSUBGRU NINE Bangor, Washington (COMSUBPAC ALT |
| | BCA). |
| | COMSUBGRU TEN Kings Bay, Georgia (COMSUBLANT ALT |
| | BCA). |
| | Information Managed | 4800 Baud Ship-to-Shore and Shore-to-Ship |
| | communications. |
| | Products Created | Emergency Action Messages, Operational tasking, |
| | Command and Control orders, Intelligence reports, |
| | and all critical record message traffic. |
| | Lead Service/Contractor | United States Navy. |
| | Current Fielding Status |
| | Known Problems | Low data rate (4800 BPS) severely limits |
| | bandwidth to and from submarine. On broadcasts |
| | simultaneously supported by VLF/LF assets, SSIXS |
| | broadcast must mirror the VLF/LF broadcast. |
| | Since the VLF/LF broadcast data rate is 50 Baud |
| | and traffic lists (ZBOs) and new traffic are |
| | loaded every 2 hours, the SSIXS broadcast is |
| | limited to the traffic that can run at 50 Baud on |
| | its VLF/LF counterpart. Additionally, each |
| | Subscriber ID (SID) cannot exceed 30K of data. |
| | Any data loaded in excess of 30K in any SID will |
| | be truncated. These two limitations drive the |
| | requirement for the BCA to carefully screen all |
| | traffic placed on the submarine broadcast to |
| | ensure that the most important traffic is |
| | received onboard the submarine. The less important traffic is screened off the broadcast and is downloaded by the submarine after returning to port. System only effective if ships are within satellite footprint. Currently no support exists above 65 deg latitude. All satellites are in Geo-synchronous orbit above a specific ocean area. |
| DIICOE Compliance Rating | N/A. |
| Point of Contact | ENS Hainline. R.L., COMSUBLANT N65, Commercial |
| (757) 836-1081. |
| Updated by | Capt Christopher P. Dever, USMC, CCSC-01. |
|
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