Status of the Mobile User Objective System

The mobile user objective system (MUOS) is a narrowband military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) system that supports a worldwide, multi-service population of mobile and fixed-site terminal users in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band, providing increased communications capabilities to smaller terminals while still supporting interoperability with legacy terminals. MUOS adapts a commercial third generation (3G) wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) cellular phone network architecture and combines it with geosynchronous satellites (in place of cell towers) to provide a new and more capable UHF MILSATCOM system. The constellation of four operational satellites and ground network control will provide greater than 10 times the system capacity of the current UHF follow-on (UFO) constellation and a unprecedented level of availability and access-on demand to satellite communications. This paper will addresses the current status of the MUOS program, including a brief history of UHF SATCOM and the successes achieved to date. It will also discuss the road ahead for the program, examining both the new capabilities it will bring to the warfighter as well as the challenges of fielding a system that requires close synchronization with multiple terminal programs. It concludes with a look at the various technologies being implemented and how future operations may be affected