Troll Systems Corporation
Table of Contents

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Summary

Troll Systems Corporation, headquartered in Valencia, California, designs and manufactures radio-agnostic, auto-tracking directional antennas and transceivers (“the data link experts”) for unmanned aircraft systems, airborne law enforcement, and commercial broadcasting, with product lineage tracing back to 1987. The company markets its systems as ITAR-free and US-manufactured, with certifications including ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D.

Key Facts

  • Founded: Product lineage traces to 1987 (Troll Technology’s SkyPod directional airborne antennas); the current corporate entity, Troll Systems Corporation, was incorporated in California in 2002 after a group of former employees repurchased the Troll brand from L3/Wescam
  • Type: Component/subsystem supplier — directional/tracking antenna and RF transceiver manufacturer
  • Status: Active, privately held; ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified; ITAR-free, US-manufactured
  • Key metric(s): AX3000 tracking antenna/transceiver system supports UHF to Ku-band (CDL and MIMO architectures); MTX series available in four reflector sizes (3 ft / 0.9 m to 6 ft / 1.83 m); SkyLink® Mini supports 1.2 GHz to 18 GHz
  • Value chain position: Component/subsystem supplier (ground and airborne tracking antennas and transceivers sold across UAS, law enforcement, and broadcast customers — not a platform vendor)

What It Is / How It Works

Troll’s flagship AX3000 is a high-gain directional antenna and transceiver system capable of automatic calibration, acquisition, and tracking, designed to link aircraft with ground nodes; it uses a solid-state inertial navigation system (INS) and dual-GPS to auto-align position and orientation in three dimensions without operator input, and remains operational in GPS-denied environments. The system is radio-agnostic, relying on Troll’s patented RF acquisition and tracking software combined with pan/tilt mechanisms rather than being tied to a single radio vendor — customers can pair it with Troll’s own MicroLink® software-defined transceiver (supporting COFDM, OFDM, and FDD multi-band transmit/receive from 1.4 to 7 GHz) or third-party MANET/MIMO and CDL radios. The MTX series extends this to a tactical, field-deployable tracking antenna line available in four reflector sizes with quick-connect radio modules, marketed for both manned and unmanned aircraft tracking in contested RF environments (resistance to jamming and interference, low probability of intercept).

The company’s SkyLink® Mini directional antenna has a notable origin story: it was originally designed for a General Atomics unmanned MALE (medium-altitude, long-endurance) aircraft used in the search for Osama bin Laden, and has since become a standard product line for long-range aircraft tracking on special-mission airborne and ground vehicles. Troll’s product and corporate lineage is unusually long for this research area — the original SkyPod antenna dates to 1987 under a predecessor company (Troll Technology), which was sold to Wescam in 1995, then folded into L3 Communications when L3 acquired Wescam in 2001, before former Troll employees repurchased the brand and re-established it as the independent Troll Systems Corporation in 2002.

Notable Developments

  • 2022: Troll Systems achieves AS9100D certification, improving its factory quality management system for aerospace-grade manufacturing.
  • 2021: Troll introduces the AX3000 ground and marine auto-tracking antenna.
  • 2020: Troll Systems wins a major multi-year contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for nationwide airborne and ground tracking-antenna infrastructure; also introduces the MicroLink® SDR software-defined radio transceiver.
  • 2019: MTX auto-tracking antenna line introduced in five parabolic reflector sizes with quick-connect transceiver/diplexer modules for CDL, COFDM, OFDM, and MIMO.
  • 2013: Troll introduces SkyLink® Mini II, a lightweight, dual-polarized, high-gain tracking antenna for airborne and ground applications.
  • 2008: Troll Systems files patents on Directional Diversity ground receive stations; by year-end had manufactured, installed, or upgraded approximately 2,500 network ground control systems and equipped roughly 92% of US broadcast news helicopters.
  • 2007: Troll designs the SkyLink Mini long-range airborne tracking antenna for General Atomics’ unmanned aircraft program, with early missions supporting the search for Osama bin Laden.
  • 2002: Former Troll employees purchase the Troll brand from L3/Wescam and incorporate Troll Systems Corporation in California.
  • 1987: Troll Technology introduces the SkyPod directional airborne antenna, the origin product of the current company’s lineage.

Key People / Key Organizations

Troll Systems’ corporate materials reviewed for this entry do not name individual executive leadership by name (a “Management” team page exists on the company site but was not fetched in this session). LinkedIn: not found.

People — Last Reviewed: 2026-07-15

Sources