Navy declares FOC for MUOS constellation

The Navy last week declared its new satellite constellation "fully operationally capable" following the completion of a successful multiservice test event conducted in October.

Navy spokesman Steven Davis confirmed to Inside Defense in a written statement today that Vice Adm. Matthew Kohler, deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare and director of naval intelligence, greenlit the program Oct. 28 to clear the acquisition milestone.

The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) is a narrowband military satellite communications system and is expected to provide 10 times the system capacity of the Pentagon's legacy Ultra High Frequency constellation.

The Navy announced in October that the satellite constellation completed a test and evaluation event with the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.

Each of MUOS' satellites carry two payloads: One uses legacy technology to maintain communications during the military’s upcoming transition; the other uses MUOS' new wideband code division multiple access capability.

"The MUOS WCDMA payload interfaces with the MUOS ground system through the MUOS WCDMA waveform that is integrated into end-user radios, adapting commercial cellular technology," according to the service's October statement.