Trouble integrating waveform leaves new MUOS satellites with little to do.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

* The U.S. military's long-standing problem of aligning the deployment of spacecraft with the development of their Earth-bound terminals and ground stations is plaguing the Navy's powerful new communications satellite system.

The service is having difficulties delivering a waveform known as wideband code division multiple access, which is intended to work with the Mobile User Objective System. MUOS is a constellation of spacecraft intended to provide the military with narrowband tactical communications with secure voice, video and data transfer. They have been called "cell towers in space" for their ability to deliver the kinds of communications consumers expect on Earth.

Three of a planned five-satellite fleet are in orbit, but 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 in April that 90 percent of the spacecrafts' capacity is going unused as problems with the waveform are 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 MUOS spacecraft have a payload that allows them to communicate with radios compatible with the legacy UHF-Follow-On satellites, which accounts for the 10 percent of capacity being used.

The General Dynamics-designed waveform is critical to unlocking MUOS' advanced communication capabilities for ground soldiers using radios, such as the joint tactical radio system (JTRS) handheld, manpack and small form fit (HMS) terminals.

"Launching MUOS satellites is important to sustain legacy UHF communications, but use of over 90 percent of MUOS' planned capability is dependent on resolving issues related to integrating the MUOS waveform, HMS terminals and ground systems," an earlier March GAO report said.

The GAO has been concerned about integration since 2007, the report said. MUOS program officials continue to work on resolving the issue, but operational testing has been pushed back by 18 months to December 2015. This will cause a delay in the fielding of MUOS-capable radios, which the Army is procuring, the report said.

The underlying problem, government watchdogs such as the GAO have noted, is that the satellites and terminal programs are separate, often run by different services, with different program managers and funding schedules...