Marine Corps exercise investigated whether the U.S. Navy MUOS satellites could handle electronic jamming
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Pentagon leaders increasingly are worried that signals from communications satellites they need for operations will become a target for adversaries during future conflicts. C4ISRnet reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
12 March 2020 -- Maj. Gen. Robert Castellvi, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, said March 2 that the Navy’s narrowband communications satellites were able to withstand significant interference during a December exercise at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Marine Corps leaders asked the Army’s Threat Systems Management Office to intentionally jam parts of the spectrum that the Navy’s Mobile User Objective System operates in for the Steel Knight 20 exercise at Camp Pendleton north of San Diego.
MUOS, a constellation of five on-orbit communications satellites built by Lockheed Martin, operates over a span of about 20 MHz. Marines learned that the signal could survive jamming as strong as about 50 percent of that threshold. That’s a significant amount, officials said, because jamming a greater portion of the spectrum more would require more power and, in turn, compromise an enemy’s position.
Related: Boeing to provide anti-jam upgrade for Wideband Global SATCOM satellite constellation
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
