(HF) BRASS (Broadcast and Ship to Shore) broadband systems are used by many NATO nations as an essential part of their naval communications systems. Leonardo has already delivered these systems to Portugal, Turkey, Spain and Belgium, as well as the Italian Navy, and on 29 March 2021, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI) awarded Leonardo a contract for updating the capacity of the Atlantic Alliance as a whole in this delicate and strategic sector. In particular, Leonardo will be responsible for upgrading the system to comply with the BRASS IP Enhanced System (BRIPES) standard.
Its success in NATO confirms the quality and dependability of the company’s solutions, and represents a potential springboard into additional markets. Being recognised as a NATO supplier is an important acknowledgement of Leonardo’s know-how, and the resulting prestige provides a stepping-stone towards future contracts. The Alliance is a very demanding customer, needing to ensure the interoperability of systems across all 29 member states, including the United States, and is therefore a strong point of reference worldwide.
BRASS is a system enabling communications over the horizon (Beyond Line Of Sight or BLOS) without needing to use satellite communication (SATCOM). BLOS communication between fixed stations onshore and mobile units in the air and at sea is essential, and satellites are the most common, preferred method thanks to their constantly growing transmission speed and reliability, and their ability to provide a vast range of services in real-time and via streaming. Nonetheless, HF systems remain an important asset, since SATCOM solutions cannot yet guarantee total coverage, often experiencing difficulties in areas with complex orography, such as fjords, and near the polar regions. SATCOM solutions are also costly, so that not all countries have access to them, and satellite signals are relatively easy to disturb electronically, even with inexpensive equipment, and are vulnerable to the current proliferation of anti-satellite weapons.
HF, on the other hand, is a complex communication medium which offers much lower transmission speeds than today’s SATCOM solutions, but is capable of making up for their limitations and compensating for the risks identified above.
For these reasons, most nations will continue to require HF communications, and Leonardo is one of very few companies in the world capable of offering a complete range of HF services.
In terms of the operational aspects, BRASS supports formal military messaging using the ACP127 protocol and guaranteeing continuous HF transmission to and from ships, typically at 300-1200 bps, in a flow of messages with recaps sent at intervals of one hour. Transmission normally takes place on several frequencies, usually 4 or 5, to ensure that naval units at sea can select the best one for the existing propagation conditions. In the event of radio silence, ships can receive messages without giving any signal in response, protecting the secrecy of their position. The BRASS service also includes a special channel that supports the exchange of ship-shore messages and offers the option to retransmit missing or corrupted messages; a ship-to-ship connection supporting direct communication between ships; and the Maritime Rear Link (MRL), a connection between selected ships and land sites that allows exchanging of messages in both directions. The historical BRASS system has many limitations: it has a limited character set, attachments cannot be sent, message reception handshake mechanisms are not always available, and the type of transmission used tends to corrupt messages. The new BRIPES, based on IP technology, overcomes these limitations, permitting transmission of more complex messages, similar to e-mails, and even introducing a chat service.
NATO began the selection process in December 2018, and for the whole of 2019 Leonardo dedicated a team to focus on preparing the proposal and presenting it to the Alliance in detail, before providing a demo version of the product for the “proof of concept” tests, along with the other interested companies in July 2020.
The contract awarded to Leonardo is for upgrading five NATO installations – at one site in Belgium, two in Portugal and two in the Netherlands. The Alliance is providing the relevant primary infrastructure, but it will then be up to individual countries to upgrade their radio transmitters and receivers for compliance with the new standard. The growing need for secure communications, without having to depend on satellite networks, means that BRIPES are not merely a backup solution, but also a strategic resource. Leonardo expects this central importance to lead to further technological evolution in the HF networks field, including an increase in the transmission speed, which could be multiplied tenfold over the current speed of 12 KB/sec.