US Navy, Lockheed Martin To Launch MUOS-4 Secure Communications Satellite

The US Navy and Lockheed Martin have prepared to launch the fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) secure communications satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Monday.

The Navy's Program Executive Office for Space Systems and its Communications Satellite Program Office responsible for the MUOS program are based in San Diego. Lockheed Martin assembled and tested MUOS-4 at its Sunnyvale, California facility.

MUOS-4 is the latest addition to a network of orbiting satellites and relay ground stations that is revolutionizing secure communications for mobile military forces, the company announced Friday. 

Users with operational MUOS terminals can seamlessly connect beyond line-of-sight around the globe and into the Global Information Grid.

The MUOS satellite has smart phone-like capabilities that include simultaneous, crystal-clear voice, video and mission data, over a high-speed Internet Protocol-based system.

"MUOS-4's delivery for the US Navy completes the initial MUOS constellation and provides near-global coverage for the network, allowing mobile forces to communicate for the first time literally around the world," said Iris Bombelyn, vice president of Narrowband Communications at Lockheed Martin.

The MUOS network, which also supports the existing ultra high frequency communications satellite system, will provide 16 times the capacity of the legacy system and eventually replace it. MUOS-1, MUOS-2 and MUOS-3 are already on orbit and all four required MUOS ground stations are complete.

MUOS-5, an on-orbit Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) spare with additional legacy system capability, is expected to launch in 2016.