The enhancement is being provided by an upgrade to its Integrated Waveform (IW) software, following successful field tests hosted by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The company said that the radio communications service had limited capacity prior to the software upgrade, which caused communication delays in battle theaters.

   “The present Ultra High Frequency (UHF) satellite system is reaching the end of its lifecycle. In order to bridge the gap between the current system and the replacement system, which is the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite constellation, DISA has worked with Raytheon and other radio vendors in the development and rapid fielding of IW as the UHF satcom solution,” Raytheon said in a company statement.

   Raytheon Network Centric Systems Program Manager David Patton added that the company is offering full backward compatibility with this software update to minimize any changes to existing equipment installations.