[Satellite TODAY 12-21-11] Raytheon has successfully tested its U.S. Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT) with the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite to provide secure communications for the U.S. military and international partners, the company announced Dec. 19.

   Raytheon’s U.S. Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT) is the second operationally fielded terminal to interoperate with an on-orbit AEHF satellite after the recent successful test of the company’s U.S. Army Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal (SMART-T) earlier this mornth.

   The first AEHF satellite was launched in August 2010. Raytheon said the NMT demonstrated interoperable communications using the AEHF satellite’s eXtended Data Rate (XDR) waveform, moving data more than five times faster than previous EHF systems. Raytheon will field 308 AEHF NMT terminals to the U.S. armed services.

   “This increased capability will give the Navy more mission flexibility and significantly increased capacity to provide protected voice, data and video communications supporting strategic and tactical missions," Raytheon Network Centric Systems Vice President of Integrated Communication Scott Whatmough said in a statement.