SatCom Sim To Aid With MUOS Development

Virtutech, Inc. will have their Virtutech Simics deployed for the ground segment of the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective Object System (MUOS) program, thanks to General Dynamics C4 Systems. The ground system will be provided by Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the MUOS program. MUOS is the U.S. military’s nexgen narrow band tactical satcom system, designed to significantly enhance ground communications for U.S. and Allied mobile forces. General Dynamics C4 Systems is leading the development and deployment of the MUOS ground system that provides communications and control interfaces between the MUOS satellites and existing and future U.S. Department of Defense terrestrial communication networks. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., prime contractor and systems engineering lead for the MUOS program, is under contract to design, build, and deploy the first two MUOS satellites and the associated MUOS ground system. The Navy’s Program Executive Office for Space Systems, Chantilly, Virginia, and its Communications Satellite Program Office, San Diego, California, are responsible for the MUOS program. Virtutech Simics provides an environment that could support rigorous testing and, at the highest level of abstraction at the transaction-level modeling (TLM), is fast enough to be useful for software developers. This is critical to the development of the MUOS ground system. MUOS will provide simultaneous voice, video, and data communication for warfighters on the move. Virtutech Simics provides a virtualized software development environment, minimizing the need to build multiple multi-million-dollar test models of satellite systems hardware. Leveraging Virtutech Simics, General Dynamics can simulate satellite ground systems hardware to create a testing and debugging tool for the MUOS mission operations. By injecting faults in the simulated ground systems hardware, the mission operations team can implement efficient responses to possible failures or anomalies in the actual system prior to the launch, which provides comprehensive training opportunities and invaluable insight into the activities of the real system long before the actual hardware is available—San Jose, California