Raytheon Co. announced having reached two technological milestones: Its Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT) is the first advanced, next-generation satellite communications (satcom) system to successfully log onto and communicate with the U.S. government’s Milstar Satcom system using low and medium data rate waveforms, the company reported Nov. 7.

The system will provide naval commanders and sailors with greater data capacity, as well as improved protection against enemy intercept and jamming.

Raytheon has demonstrated that its NMT is fully compatible with existing submarine and shore antennas, an important life-cycle, cost-savings objective of the program, the company said.

Also, Raytheon claimed a key milestone in its Modernized User Equipment program by successfully acquiring and tracking for the first time an M-code military signal transmitted by the latest-generation global positioning system satellite.

Though the first modernized satellite, GPS Block 2R-14(M), has been operating with legacy signals since December 2005, it only recently began test broadcast of the new M-code, which provides enhanced accuracy, encryption and anti-jamming capability for authorized users.