PEO EIS Hosts Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Pacific SATCOM Terminal

The Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station, Pacific (NCTAMS PAC) commemorated the acceptance of a new state-of-the-art satellite communications (SATCOM) terminal during a ribbon cutting ceremony April 16, 2015, in Wahiawa, Hawaii.

This is the first of three Navy controlled terminals scheduled to be installed at Wahiawa by the U.S. Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Service’s (PEO EIS) Wideband Enterprise Satellite Systems (WESS) Modernization of Enterprise Terminals (MET) program, in conjunction with an industry partner, Harris Corporation. WESS plans to install an additional MET terminal co-located in Wahiawa at the Wideband Satellite Operations Center, controlled by Army Strategic Command.

These terminals form a key part of the DOD Teleport System being implemented by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and operated by the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Army partnerships worldwide.

“The MET is the most advanced satellite terminal project in the government sector,” said Mr. Douglas Wiltsie, PEO EIS. “MET replaces aging, bandwidth-limited infrastructure with state-of-the-art SATCOM terminals to manage the immense amount of data that the Army is producing today.”

MET installations support U.S. DOD and Allied forces by providing X- and Ka-Band communications utilizing the Wideband Global Satellite Communications, Defense Satellite Communications Systems satellites and XTAR satellites integrating users into the Global Information Grid communications infrastructure.

The successful delivery of the terminal highlights the broad interagency cooperation and coordination required for a project of such grand scale.

“The main objective during this effort was to not only provide a much improved, updated and modernized enterprise terminal to our Navy brethren, but also to accomplish the mission without disrupting [NCTAMS] day-to-day operations,” said LTC Samuel Ancira, WESS Product Manager.

Other key partners on the project include the DISA Teleport Program Office, Tobyhanna Army Depot and the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command.

The MET Program achieved Initial Operational Capability last year with the delivery and activation of the Fort Belvoir MET in the Washington, D.C., region.

“The Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station in Wahiawa has a long history of being at the forefront of Joint Satellite communications,” said CAPT William Dodge Jr., NCTAMS PAC Commanding Officer. “In 1954, a full three years before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, Wahiawa was an original moon relay site using the moon to bounce voice and data between Hawaii and Washington, D.C.”

This terminal and the two still planned for installation will continue to enable NCTAMS PAC as “the Pacific Voice of Command” into the next generation of satellite communications.