Fiber optic cable assembly development and its impact on tactical communications

A tactical fiber optic cable assembly has been designed to withstand the stringent environmental and mechanical requirements imposed on tactical communications equipment. A completed cable assembly consists of a 1-km cable containing two tightly buffered optical fibers, terminated with hermaphroditic connectors to facilitate field deployment. The fibers are radiation hard with dual-wavelength capability, and have attenuation of less than 0.80 dB/km with a bandwidth product greater than 400 MHz-km at 1300 nm. The cabled optical fibers are in a ruggedized all-dielectric structure and exhibit an incremental loss below 0.5 dB/km over the operating temperature range -48°C to 71°C. The cable weighs less than 33 kg/km, is 6 mm in diameter, and has a 1780-N tensile rating. The cable assembly has been tested in accordance with DoD-STD-1678 and MIL-STD-810 and meets all requirements