GAO Continues Criticism of DoD’s Handling of Narrow-Band Satellite Communications

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The DoD has not been able to use the advanced capabilities of the system, such as its 10-fold communication capacity.

WASHINGTON The US military’s narrowband communications satellites are oversubscribed and insufficient capacity to meet user needs, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The report released on September 2 focuses on the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), a network of five geosynchronous satellites operated by the US Navy. The system was conceived almost two decades ago as a cellular voice and data satellite network for mobile forces.

Although the entire MUOS satellite constellation has been in orbit for four years, the DoD has not provided enough handsets and user terminals to take advantage of the more advanced features of the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) payload. . Most users have older terminals that only communicate with other payloads from MUOS, an older Ultra High Frequency (UHF) system. The GAO has called the DoD on this issue in several reports and the latter suggests that the issues have not been resolved.

The DoD has not been able to use the advanced capabilities of the system, such as its 10-fold communication capacity. One of the main reasons is that the military services have delayed the delivery of compatible radio terminals to users, GAO said.

The DoD, in its response to the GAO findings, said it was funding and making plans to expedite the procurement and delivery of these terminals. The Navy recently transferred management of the MUOS system to the US Space Force.

User needs will remain unmet unless the DoD explores additional options and takes steps to provide additional narrowband capacity in the short term during the transition to using advanced MUOS capabilities, GAO said.

The report also warns that the DoD faces the challenge of starting to decide what comes after MUOS’s current capacity to ensure that the narrowband SATCOM needs of combatants will continue to be met before 2034, when the current MUOS system is expected. degrade.

Over the years, the GAO has criticized the DoD for the rambling management of the MUOS program. The Navy was given the responsibility of procuring the satellites and ground systems, but the primary intended users were the Army and Marine Corps ground forces, which were responsible for procuring their specific MUOS terminals.

The Navy and Army initially planned to deploy MUOS satellites and compatible terminals simultaneously, but technical issues derailed that plan. The Navy began development of the MUOS in 2004 and experienced setbacks in operational testing, GAO noted. In the same year, the military began developing software-defined portable radio terminals, some of which would be MUOS-compatible, and also encountered development challenges.

The GAO said the Pentagon should come up with other options to provide short-term narrowband satellite communications services. He also recommended that the DoD update its future narrowband satellite communication requirements for the Space Force to begin planning a follow-up program to replace MUOS.

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