Navy, at Long Last, Plans Launch of Key Satellite

Way back in 2004, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin a $2 billion contract to develop a new generation of UHF satellites to serve ground troops as well as ships. The first launch was scheduled for 2009.

But this system, which goes by the ungainly name of the Mobile User Objective System, encountered the usual delays, with the first of four MUOS satellites slated for launch this Wednesday.

MUOS is needed to replace an aging satellite system that goes by the name of UHF Follow On, with one of the satellites in that system now 17 years old, which when you get down to it, is longer than the average car lasts.

Meanwhile, due to delays in the MUOS schedule, the Defense Department has been getting by with a little help from its friends, leasing channels on the commercial SkyNet 5 satellite that Britain's Defense Ministry uses and five channels on the commercial Sicral satellite the Italian Defense Ministry uses.

The Navy also has secured an additional 50 channels through the Australian Defense Force, which has a lease on a UHF payload on Intelsat 22. That satellite is scheduled for launch in the second quarter of this year.