Col. Eric Felt: Direct-to-cell services conceivably could enhance or replace dedicated narrowband satcom systems like the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS)

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Lockheed Martin and Boeing each won a $66 million contract to design a narrowband communications satellite to expand the existing network known as the Mobile User Objective System.

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Canada is the first international partner to access the U.S. Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite network, the U.S. Space Force announced Nov. 30.

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The U.S. military’s narrowband communications satellites are oversubscribed and there is insufficient capacity to meet the needs of users, says a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

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The realignment does not affect the MUOS program. But any future narrowband satcom acquisition will be handled by the Air Force.

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Building and launching spacecraft sometimes gets so much attention that the ground segment — user terminals, command and control systems and network operations —isn’t always ready even after a satellite is in space.

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The Canadian military, already a partner on two U.S. military satellite communications systems, is in discussions to use a third constellation that was until recently a U.S.-only system.

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The U.S. Navy announced that its MUOS-5 satellite has finally reached operational orbit following a problem with the main propulsion system in June.

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Harris Corp. said Nov. 1 that the backpack-sized military radios it builds for U.S. troops to carry into combat were recently certified by the National Security Agency to use the higher-throughput capabilities of the Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellites.

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The U.S. Air Force said Aug. 18 it sent one of its high-orbiting space surveillance satellites to check on a Navy communications satellite that ran into propulsion problems about halfway to geosynchronous orbit.

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The U.S. Navy said its newest communications satellite was about halfway to geosynchronous orbit when its orbit raising propulsion system failed during a transfer maneuver June 29.

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Lockheed Martin on July 20 reported lower revenue and operating profit at its Space Systems division for the six months ending June 26 despite a large profit contribution by launch-service provider United Launch Alliance (ULA).

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The Canadian military wants to build a new constellation that would provide 24-hour satellite communications for the Arctic region as early as 2023, one of the country’s top space officers said June 29.

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United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket returned to flight June 24 with its first launch in three months to successfully lift the fifth and final satellite in the U.S. Navy’s next-generation mobile communications system.

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Harris Corp. on May 3 said it has successfully tested a software patch that will upgrade thousands of U.S. military tactical radio terminals to use the higher-throughput MUOS satellite system.

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A consortium of U.S. international partners, led by Canada, could reach an agreement early next year to build a sixth Mobile User Objective System narrowband communications satellite, a top Lockheed Martin executive said March 15.

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The Defense Department may abandon its practice of distinguishing between wideband, narrowband and protected communications on its next generation of tactical communications satellites, a top Pentagon official said March 7.

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The decision comes after years of allied complaints, especially from nations that had purchased U.S.-built Joint Strike Fighter aircraft on the assumption that they would be fitted with MUOS communications pods.

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The successful launch of the U.S. Navy’s fourth Mobile User Objective System communications satellite Sept. 2 rounds out a multibillion-dollar constellation that has been in development for more than a decade. But the launch is also a reminder that more than three-and-a-half years after the February 2012 launch of the first satellite, some two years behind schedule, the MUOS system’s advanced capabilities remain unavailable.

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The U.S. Navy launched the fourth satellite in its next-generation mobile communications system Sept. 2 after a two-day weather delay.

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Weather has pushed back the Atlas 5 launch of a U.S. Navy mobile communications satellite that had been scheduled for Monday morning.

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The U.S. Navy’s fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) communications satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in preparation for a scheduled August launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

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The U.S. Navy was forced to postpone the final certification test of its next-generation mobile satellite communications system to December 2015 because of problems integrating the system’s new radio frequency waveform with the ground segment and terminals.

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Lockheed Martin has delivered its third satellite in the U.S. Navy’s next-generation mobile communications program to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

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