The US Navy has successfully completed full-rate production (FRP) review of Raytheon’s navy multiband terminal (NMT) to be installed on more than 300 naval ships, submarines and shore stations.
Approving the NMT as both suitable and effective for operational use, the review report further recommended the terminal as replacement of legacy military satellite communications systems and stressed continued fleet introduction.
Raytheon’s network centric systems business integrated communication systems vice president Scott Whatmough said that the NMT has been designed to withstand extreme conditions at sea, while maintaining constant contact with the satellite.
"Warfighters can accomplish their missions knowing they have secure, reliable, protected communications," Whatmough added.
Around 75 terminals have been delivered by Raytheon to date, as part of a contract to deliver a total of 350 over the life of the 15-year programme.
As a range of multiband ship, submarine and shore communications terminals, NMT has been designed to integrate extremely-high-frequency/advanced extremely-high-frequency (EHF/AEHF) capability with two-way military Ka and X-band, and the global broadcast service.
Backward compatible with legacy satellite systems, the system is also compatible and interoperable with wideband global SATCOM and legacy navy and other service terminals.
As well as providing greater data throughput capacity and enhanced protection against enemy intercepts for naval commanders and sailors, the new system also provides secure, protected communications links with orbiting military satellites.
The NMT enables seamless and secure connectivity for the US, Canada, the Netherlands and UK between individual ship and submarine networks and the Global Information Grid.
