The Navy is gearing up for the August launch of the fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite manufactured by Lockheed Martin [LMT], an event that will expand the constellation’s coverage to include almost anywhere on earth. The system could become operational as early as the end of 2015, should it pass muster during multi-service operational test and evaluation scheduled for later this year, according to the company’s vice president of narrowband communications.
MUOS is a narrowband tactical satellite communications system that will allow troops to transmit and receive voice, video and data with the same kind of seamless coverage as a smartphone, said Iris Bombelyn, who manages the program at Lockheed Martin. It will provide secure, beyond the line of sight communications with a high-speed Internet Protocol-based system.
Compared to legacy ultra high frequency (UHF) satellite constellations, it will have far greater coverage, increasing the military’s ability to communicate across far distances and into the Arctic, she said.
On June 28, the fourth satellite, MUOS-4, arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where it will be loaded aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and sent into space, stated a Lockheed Martin news release.
Over the following several weeks, Lockheed Martin was to conduct health checks to ensure that no damage has been incurred during the transport of the spacecraft from its Sunnyvale, Calif.-facility to Florida, prepare it for fuel loading, and do battery maintenance, Bombelyn said. Finally, the company was to begin integrating the system with the launch vehicle, including encapsulating the satellite within the payload fairing—a vessel that protects the satellite during launch.
MUOS-1 and MUOS-2 were launched in 2012 and 2013, respectively, and MUOS-3 followed earlier this year. The service plans to launch the fifth and final MUOS satellite, the on-orbit spare, in 2016. The system also comprises four MUOS ground stations, software to manage the system, and the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access waveform that interfaces with end-users’ various radios.
Earlier this year the Government Accountability Office reported integration problems concerning the system’s waveform, terminals and ground systems that could limit 90 percent of the system’s capability. The Navy has extended testing to fix those issues, in turn delaying the completion of operational testing by 17 months to November 2015.
“As a result, the Army’s plans to field its MUOS-compatible radios have now slipped from 2014 to 2016, roughly four years since the first MUOS satellite launched,” Cristina Chaplain, the GAO’s director of acquisition and sourcing management, said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this year.
Bombelyn said that Lockheed Martin has been working with the Navy, Army and General Dynamics [GD]—which developed the waveform—to refine it and improve reliability and call completion rates.
“The waveform works,” she said. “But the level of reliability of some of the services was not at the level that you would want to field it to the warfighter that was depending on communications.”
Part of the issue is that the waveform was developed in parallel to the radio terminals that use it, so government and industry are now focusing on how to integrate all parts of the MUOS system together, she said. Since that effort started, the system has showed much improvement, meeting its reliability target.
The week of June 22, the Army and Navy held a series of technology evaluations where troops used MUOS-enabled communications in scenarios like driving up and down roads, walking through forests and in heavy rain.
“It’s been pretty gratifying to see the system performing as we’ve been advertising,” she said. There are still issues to be worked out—namely the call completion rate—but Bombelyn said she was confident Lockheed Martin can work those out before operational tests later this year.