The Navy's MUOS-4 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin and launched Sept. 2 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, has completed a series of successful on-orbit tests. The Navy has accepted the Mobile User Objective System satellite, which will be relocated in spring 2016 to its operational spot.
The MUOS constellation provides its network of relay ground stations and terminals with beyond-line-of-sight connections and access to the Global Information Grid over a secure high-speed Internet Protocol-based system.
"Mobile forces, equipped with MUOS terminals, will soon be able to communicate with each other – including voice, data and exchanging imagery – real-time, virtually anywhere on the Earth," said Iris Bombelyn, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for Narrowband Communications, in a news release.
The MUOS near-global network will provide 16 times the capacity of the legacy ultra-high-frequency communications satellite system, which it will support and eventually replace. More than 55,000 currently fielded radio terminals can be upgraded to be MUOS-compatible, with many requiring just a software upgrade. MUOS-5, an on-orbit spare, also will be launched in 2016.
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