[Satellite TODAY Insider 08-23-11] The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) will launch its Tactical Satellite 4 (TacSat-4) Sept. 27 from the Alaska Aerospace Corp.’s Kodiak launch complex on an Orbital Sciences Minotaur-4 rocket, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed Aug. 22.

   TacSat-4 is a Navy-led joint mission that aims to provide 10 UHF channels to U.S. troops to connect their radios to communications-on-the-move (COTM) services in obscured regions without the need for antenna positioning and pointing.

   The satellite features technology that allows flexible up- and down-channel assignments to increase the ability to operate in high latitudes and busy radio-frequency environments where users currently cannot access UHF satellite communications.

   The NRL Blossom Point Ground Station will provide command and control for TacSat-4. The U.S. Navy employed the Virtual Mission Operations Center (VMOC) mission planning system to allow rapid reallocation of the satellite to different theaters worldwide.

   “Ultimately, TacSat-4 will augment the existing fleet by giving the satcom support centers an additional space asset to provide communications to otherwise under-served users and areas that either do not have high enough priority or do not have satellite visibility. The project helps define future options for launching one or more smaller, highly elliptical orbit (HEO) satellites allowing the military to achieve the benefits of a combined HEO and geosynchronous orbit constellation,” NRL said in a statement.

   NRL built the spacecraft bus in cooperation with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and a consortium of aerospace companies including AeroAstro, ATK Space, Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Boeing, General Dynamics, Space Systems/Loral and Raytheon.

   The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored the development of the payload and the first year of operations. The U.S. Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office funded the launch, which is being managed by a directorate of the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC).

   “Communication is a critical warfighting requirement. TacSat-4 will support forward deployed forces at sea and Marines on the ground. We’ve developed a technology more rapidly and at lower cost that will supplement traditional satellites, giving multiple combatant commanders around the globe another outlet for data transmission and communications-on-the-move,” ONR Director Larry Schuette said in a statement.