Canada Taps Into MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) Satellite System in Collaborative Effort with Space Systems Command

Published Oct. 24, 2024
By Space Systems Command

El Segundo, Calif -- On the heels of a highly successful Initial Operational Capability (IOC) event in June, the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) have kicked off an Operations and Sustainment (O&S) Phase which will provide Canada with six years of access to the Space Force’s MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) Satellite System.

MUOS is the U.S. Department of Defense’s newer, more advanced UHF SATCOM system. It is designed to provide joint warfighters with reliable, worldwide voice and data communications in challenging weather environments and through thick foliage. Improvements over legacy systems include a ten-fold increase in overall communications capacity, reduced signal interference and improved connectivity performance.

Canada is the first Five Eyes (FVEY) nation to achieve international interoperability with MUOS. The effort was spearheaded by Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Narrowband SATCOM Acquisition Delta and Canada’s Tactical Narrowband SATCOM - Geosynchronous (TNS-GEO) project office.

At $126.2M, this six-year O&S phase contract is the largest Foreign Military Sales case in USSF history.
“Partnering to win is a critical force multiplier and we look forward to more opportunities to expand interoperability to other international partners,” said Deanna Ryals, SSC Director of International Affairs.

The U.S. and Canadian bilaterial Narrowband SATCOM team invested years of extensive planning, design modification, and implementation to get Canada through a pre-demonstration event in October 2023, a full demonstration event in March 2024, and a month of intense MUOS training in June 2024. These key activities culminated in the highly successful Canadian-led Initial Operational Capability (IOC) event on June 25, 2024 in Ottawa, Canada.

During the IOC event, the Canadian team was not only able to confidently and independently provision their AN/PRC-117G terminals and demonstrate they could push to talk and connect from one Canadian radio terminal to another Canadian radio terminal -in other words, make a Point-to-Point (P2P) call - but they also were able to successfully accomplish other services like Point-to-Net (P2N) with chat, file transfer, and email, as well as group calls.

USSF Lt. Col. Kevin Champaigne, SSC Material Lead for MUOS Integrated Ground, applauded the team’s accomplishments to date and stated, “We are truly excited for Canada to join the MUOS user community.”

“The joint allied cooperation and hard work of both teams has been manifested in a phenomenal list of achievements during the last year,” said Scott Mackenzie, TNS-GEO Project Manager. “Congratulations to everyone involved. The value of a strong partnership is quite remarkable!”