Key military comms satellite about to become operational.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

* After years of delays, the military's Mobile User Objective System--which includes a constellation of satellites, ground stations and radio terminals--is nearing primetime.

"MUOS really is operational today," said Navy Cmdr. Peter Sheehy, principal assistant program manager and contracting officer's representative at program executive office space systems.

MUOS will provide troops with narrowband tactical communications that will give them access to secure, high-quality voice, video and data transfer via handheld radios. However, the program has been plagued with delays and developmental hiccups.

MUOS is now "on the precipice of going to full initial operational capability," said Bill Ross, vice president at General Dynamics Mission Systems, the manufacturer of MUOS-compatible PRC-155 Manpack radios.

A spokesperson for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command said a firm date for IOC has yet to be announced, but noted that it would be in 2016. Ross said he expected it would take place in late spring or early summer.

MUOS is a constellation of Navy satellites. The fifth and final spacecraft is slated to be launched in May. It will provide enhanced communications to tactical radios such as the Army's two-channel Manpack via ground terminals and an advanced new waveform known as the wideband code division multiple access. It is expected that WCDMA will provide users with 10 times more capacity than the legacy ultra-high frequency system.

The developmental waveform recently caused the program's schedule to slip after it was discovered that it had trouble integrating with the radios and the four Earth-based ground stations.

Last April, Cristina T. Chaplain, director of acquisition and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee that 90 percent of the spacecrafts' capacity was going unused as problems with the waveform were being worked out.

"As a result, the Army's plans to field its MUOS-compatible radios have now slipped from 2014 to 2016, roughly four years since the first MUOS satellite launched," she said.

The WCDMA issue caused MUOS' operational test and evaluation to be pushed back from 2014 to the end of 2015, Sheehy said during a February panel discussion at an industry conference hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA International.

"We did spend about a year doing additional integration tests to make sure that the waveform...