Space Force orders two more MUOS satellites from Boeing

The U.S. Space Force selected Boeing over Lockheed Martin to build two additional narrowband communications satellites for the Mobile User Objective System, with Space Systems Command announcing the $2 billion award on June 24, 2026. The contract covers Space Vehicles 6 and 7, which are slated for launch no earlier than 2031 and 2032 and will bring the MUOS constellation to seven satellites total, keeping it operational through 2035.

The award ends the Phase II downselect of the MUOS Service Life Extension competition after both contractors completed Phase I risk-reduction work. The Space Force awarded Boeing and Lockheed Martin contracts worth $66 million each in January 2024 for Phase I preliminary design work. The Navy originally developed MUOS in the early 2000s to replace aging military satellite communications systems, naming Lockheed Martin prime contractor in 2004, and responsibility for the program transferred from the Navy to the Air Force in 2019 and then to the Space Force in 2023.

MUOS is the military’s primary narrowband satellite communications constellation, providing secure ultra-high-frequency voice and data services to mobile and fixed users globally. The current constellation consists of four operational satellites and one on-orbit spare, which Lockheed Martin built and launched into geosynchronous orbit during the 2012-2016 time frame. The system uses commercial Wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology adapted for military use, remains compatible with legacy UHF terminals, and converts commercial 3G cellular technology into a secure Pentagon communications network that provides reliable connectivity in difficult terrain and adverse weather.

More than 67,000 UHF terminals across the Department of Defense currently rely on the MUOS network. Narrowband links are lower-data-rate but highly jam-resistant and accessible from small, low-power terminals used by dismounted infantry, submarines, and aircraft. Space Force reasoning cited by GovConFeed holds that no commercial provider currently delivers the combination of global coverage, low-probability-of-intercept waveforms, and military command-and-control integration found in MUOS.

Gen. Kimberly Crider of ElaraNova to open the second day of the MilSat Symposium at Silicon Valley Space Week. She said two more satellites and ground system upgrades could keep MUOS operating out to 2035, even 2040, though the system is currently slated to start diminishing in capability in about 2030.

Coens said she fully expects requests for information releases, industry days, and reverse industry days over the next year to 18 months as industry engages on MUOS narrowband work. The big constraint, she noted, is terminals, because any new approach must avoid damaging fielded terminals owned by the joint services that nobody wants to pay to replace. Crider made the same point, saying narrowband modernization for the U.S. and its allies will not go as far as needed without solving the terminal problem.

Coens rejected commercial direct-to-device service as a substitute for MUOS, saying troops do not want a signal that chirps to the enemy and that MUOS’s design favors a lower probability of detection. The Air Force Research Laboratory is running a rapid program to study whether MUOS-style narrowband can reach users from medium Earth orbit, and an RFI is already out.

Coens said industry should build lightweight, adaptable terminal packages so robotic systems can track and handle as many different signal sets as possible. She said troops want as many signal-path options as possible in the smallest possible form factor, and Crider agreed that terminals are central to allied modernization.

Since mid-2023, the Space Force has been working on a long-range strategy that would transfer some or all of the narrowband communications mission to commercial providers. That strategy runs parallel to the decision to extend MUOS with new Boeing-built satellites.

The contract is valued at up to $2,002,862,607 and is a fixed-price-incentive-firm-target agreement. Space Systems Command obligated $204 million in fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds at award, about ten percent of the $2 billion ceiling. Boeing will manufacture the satellites at its El Segundo, California facility, building them on its 702MP medium-class platform to leverage an active production line for manufacturing efficiency and schedule predictability.

The first satellite is scheduled for delivery in 2031, and all contract work is expected to conclude by September 2035. The Space Force’s fiscal 2026 budget includes $415 million in MUOS research and development and almost $50 million in procurement, while the fiscal 2027 R&D request is $856 million with $2.6 billion total through 2031.

The fiscal year 2027 procurement request for MUOS includes $51 million, with $265 million for procurement through 2031. Erin Carper, acting Space Force program acquisition executive for SATCOM and PNT, stated in a June 2026 statement, “This award strengthens our global communications infrastructure, ensuring our joint and coalition partners have the tools needed for advanced mil-UHF WCDMA communications,”

The MUOS extension is one of several recent Space Force satellite communications procurements. In May 2026, the service selected Viasat and Intelsat General Communications for a combined $437.7 million contract under the Protected Tactical Satellite-Global program to supply jam-resistant communications for military forces in contested environments.

Earlier in June 2026, the Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million contract to develop an Enhanced Protected Tactical Satellite Communications prototype on a GEOStar-3 bus. Also in 2026, the Space Force awarded contracts worth up to $3.2 billion to 12 companies under the Space-Based Interceptor program to fund prototype missile defense technologies with a 2028 demonstration.